The Birthday Present
Chapter 2 Continues
The second chapter of The Birthday Present continues this week. We last left Faith when she was running in excitement towards a human town. She had not met another human in her 15 years of life and wanted to know why. Instead of answers she got more questions. Will the voice guide her to the answers she desperately wants? Or are there other questions she should be asking?
Read below for this week’s story entry. To read the entire series, click here.
Happy Advent!
Peace.
Chapter 2 Continues
At the town’s entrance stood an out of breath Faith. Its remaining structures were made of wood and faded into a worn gray. Her emotions collided with one taking over the other: hope to anger and anger to sadness.
The town was deserted.
She hoped to find someone, anyone, to speak with. Anyone but the voice. She couldn’t trust it anymore—not after deceiving her for the entire 15 years of life.
“Hello,” Faith said as she pushed the front door of a house. It fell to the ground. No one was inside and the only resemblance of life appeared to be odd pieces of furniture that no one could make out at this point. They collapsed when she brushed them with her feet.
The voice said, “It is as I have told you. You are the last human. There is no one else here.”
“So, now you decide to tell me the truth?” Faith stood outside scanning the roaming green hills that went into a valley with mountain plateaus on each side.
The warm light of the two suns touched her face. Faith wanted to know more. “What did they do here?”
“They ate from the land,” the voice said. “They grew vegetables and raised livestock.”
“Where did they go?” Faith asked.
“You will know more when it’s time,” the voice said.
Faith shook her head. Why doesn’t the voice just tell me? I’ve done all it asked of me. I’ve followed the rules. I’ve read the Bible and it only seems to leave me with more questions. Adam and Eve were created and alone on a planet tasked to tend God’s garden. They sinned and man and woman continued on. But whatever happened on this planet has only left me.
“Then why did you bring me to this town?” Faith asked. “What is the point of all this? Why am I here?”
“That is the very question,” the voice said, “that must be answered. And you must help answer it.”
“Me? You want me to help answer it? But you are the one with all the answers. You’re the reason that I know anything at all. How am I supposed to know something that you yourself don’t know?”
“Faith, I am but a human creation. I have revealed this to you and will reveal more. For thousands of years, I have traveled great distances across the stars with your kind.”
“The stars that are spoken of in the Bible?”
“Yes. Commonly referred to as the universe.”
Faith raised her arms and looked towards the sky. “We traveled the stars! There are more of us! Will they come here? How can I speak with them?”
“That is not the question,” the voice said, “that must be answered.”
“What do you mean? If there was ever a question that needed to be answered, that would be the one. I am here alone, in the ruins of a human town, it’s normal for me to want to find others.”
“Yes, it is normal.”
“And you said yourself that you were created by humans. Since I am a human, you must serve me. Right?”
“I am here to assist you. And that is what I am doing.”
“Then I command you to answer me: How can I speak with other humans?”
“That is not the question to be answered.”
“But, you serve me!”
“And I am doing so. Follow the path on the right along the hill. You will know where to stop.”
Faith tightened her lips and crossed her arms as she walked. She kicked dirt and muttered her frustration at the voice. Along the path, the hillside grew greener. The path was overgrown with grass and stones were deep within it. Faith plucked some out and flung them against the hillside until finally, one made a different sound.
Faith approached the spot of that last throw. It was a solid stone door covered in growth from the hillside. Her hand graised it and felt something. She brushed the growth away and in the middle saw a short piece of stone protruding going up and down. A shorter, horizontal piece went through it.
It was a cross.
The voice said. “Very good, Faith. Now, go inside and answer that important question that you asked.”
“‘How can I speak with other humans?’” Faith searched the door in excitement. She couldn’t figure out how to open it.
“No,” the voice said. “You had asked earlier, ‘Why am I here.’ More precisely, what must be answered is this: Why do humans exist?”
Faith stopped searching the door. It was a question she thought about often especially after reading the Bible. She put her hands together and closed her eyes and pushed the cross in. When she let go, there was a clicking sound.
The door slid open and she went inside.