By Scott Sullivan
Editor
The Hungry I
Machine dreams I had, of storytelling gear Carter might bring new when he showed at the Three Rivers Super 8.
It was Friday, Oct. 13, inverted digits of Halloween. There for a night at the inn, then a 6 a.m. half-hour dash to Lawless Park, 83 acres given state dark-sky status for reasons I’d recall trying an hour before dawn to find it.
Hmm, M-60 east through Jones, its lit gas mart easy to find if I get near enough. There it is, light-pollution beacon. Stop, unload coffee in men’s room — still have to flip switch, light’s not motion-sensitive — scan bulletin board in breezeway:
Yes, still Satori Salon & Spa posters thumbtacked to it. Nirvana’s not open yet, but will be when, with luck, I’ll be back, assignment fulfilled, from drenched Lawless Park for a complete makeover ala Oz.
But that’s not till tomorrow. Now I pored through a Gideon’s Bible waiting for Carter in our Super 8 Room 226 double unit:
Genesis 6.5: The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of thoughts in his heart was only evil continually.
Damn, I thought. That’s me.
Gen. 6.7: So the LORD said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have ever made them.
I wanted to blot out what I thought were needless King James translation words. e.g.
6.5: God judged men, mammals, lizards, reptiles and birds He’d made wicked and repented.
6.7: Thus omitted all.
This the case, I thought, why keep writing? If you must make errors, at least make new ones from which to learn and be happy in fast-expiring time allotted.
A lot to think about, I thought. Lot in Gen. 19.1-38, his wife and daughters incur the LORD’s judgment on Sodom, Gomorrah. As a kid I’d mistaken gonorrhea for that.
Back to Gen. 6.11: Corrupt, always violent, the LORD fixed on drowning all life except Noah, granting him dispensation to save favorite mating animals.
On one gopher wood ark, space had to be at a premium. Why not merge sexes and all creations into a single one who’s eternal, no reproduction needed. “You’re talking ME,” I could hear the LORD say.
“Don’t forget room for your wife, sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their wives,” HE went on. “Why aren’t women named?” Noah asked. “Forget them?”
“They’re ineffable. They don’t need names. Maybe they can create mortal beings in their image better than I can,” the LORD said.
“You erred? How can that be?” asked Noah.
“See, you too embody my errors, questioning.”
“You’re just playing Satan,” said Noah, “Don’t tempt me. ‘Don’t judge or you’ll be judged,’ your only begotten son said. ‘Don’t condemn and you won’t be condemned. Forgive and you’ll be forgiven …” we find in Matthew 6.7, New Testament.
“Skipping further ahead, ‘Oh LORD, why have you forsaken me?’ calls Christ from the cross, in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34. First Adam, now Noah, now Your own son?”
“You’ll thank me later for your mortality,” said the LORD. “His suffering was over quick.”
“Crown of thorns? Nailed hands and feet to and hung from a cross Roman soldiers forced him to lug post-trial up Golgotha. Jeerers below, sun and insects feeding on his flesh, from extremities inward, as life winks out progressively cell by cell?”
”Look, I took him back for the joy of reuniting with me,” said the Lord. “Then, one more farewell trip as an apparition for disciples who’d stayed loyal. Then quick, back up to heaven before scribes, like gnats, arrive.
Communications these days are quicker. Where don’t the gospels concur? I thought.
Cell phone ping! Carter texted he’s stuck in I-94 rush hour traffic near Battle Creek.
Figures, driving here from Ann Arbor, given his departure time: always shooting, downloading, losing track of time till … Oh yeah, gotta drive there next Should have left already.
Where in B.C.? I texted back.
“Near an airport. I think I’ve been here before …”
You always think that. What do you know about Genesis? NOAA says we’ll see rain with gusts in the park tomorrow.
“National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that? Yeah, I know, map’s on my dashboard screen.
I too pictured green masses from the west having crossed Lake Michigan, likely intensifying … outside hear rooftop patter, from inside I see shining leaves nearby through the window.
Just reaching Three Rivers now, I texted back. Lawless will be well marinated by tomorrow. How’s your gear for that?
“Brought the drone in unlikely case they’re wrong. So I’ll have to haul it in with other stuff from my car.”
You love your gear more than people …
“Sometimes.”
Understood. Lot of what seems needless hauling, but being human camels helps shooters roaming otherwise unarmed. Camera body or bodies, 2.8f lenses of different lengths, mono- and/or tripod, large umbrella, ready to walk for miles if that’s where the shot is. What about gospels concurring? I texed back.
“I’m Jewish, I don’t read them. How did you jump from Genesis to Jesus?
Tell you when you get here. Haven’t thought to track it back.