There was a shocked silence after Jayda stormed out, Karen trailing behind. As one, the family drew its chairs around the long white table. Children sat on laps, watching the glittering eyes of their elders.
Oliver’s grandfather, Richard, spoke first, slowly.
“As Christians, we have to first believe that the fault lies with us. Sin does not grow in a vacuum, without careful tending – usually by indifference, and we are all guilty of that…” He turned to his daughter-in-law. “Marie, you, most of all, really tried to save them – and might have succeeded, we don’t know Jayda’s future…” He sighed “What do you think?”
“I think – I think that the world is making crazy people way faster than we can make them sane.”
There was a low murmur of agreement around the table. Oliver slowly stirred a hummus dip with a plastic fork, watching the grooves like little plough-lines.
Marie continued: “I’ve seen Jayda’s social media posts, they are unrelentingly – awful.” She took a deep breath. “It’s this modern – vanity, or intransigence. There is no forgiveness. Allies and enemies, that’s all they see. Any and all inequality always results from prejudice or bigotry or hatred…”
“We know the symptoms, mom,” said David. “And how quickly this all happened. I went to do my missionary work - then just a couple of years later, it was like I had returned to a totally different country. We can’t fight this in the abstract, we have to figure out what is going on for her, just as – Jayda.”
His wife Jennifer said: “How many times has she been confronted?”
Marie said: “Twice. As the Good Book says: once privately, the next time with just a few of us… But it’s tough to get her in front of the whole community, she never comes to church…”
“Has she admitted any fault?”
Richard shook his head. “I was there the second time. It’s like talking to a – a robot. A machine.” He snapped his fingers rapidly. “All the programmed answers just come – spitting out.”
Oliver watched the exchange closely, but said nothing.
Diane said: “Has she shown any interest in a family, kids? Love?”
“Oh, love is bourgeois prejudice, you know the nonsense…”
She frowned. “So – what is going to tame her?”
The youngest brother Keith laughed. “Thank heavens she’s not here to - hear that!”
Richard grunted. “We get one more kick at the can, then she’s – out, I’m afraid to say. So – how do we approach this?”
Iris raised her hand. Her fiancé Keith nodded encouragingly.
Richard gestured. “Go ahead, this isn’t primary school.”
Iris cleared her throat. “Is she – is she an outright atheist?”
Richard looked around. “Anyone?”
Diane said: “I wouldn’t put it that way… I don’t think she believes in anything, really. She’s like a nihilist, but even that has a kind of dark energy that she can’t really summon… She’s just – oppositional, to everything – even herself.”
Marie nodded slowly. “Rebellious…” She turned to her husband. “What was that song she was listening to, gave me goosebumps…”
“‘Bury a Friend.’”
“Straight up devil worship.” She sighed slowly. “Not exactly what I expected to face, at my time of life.”
Her husband shrugged. “It’s all foretold, we been preparing for this since we were kids…” He turned to his wife. “Marie, how have the conversations been going with Karen?”
Marie swallowed. “She’s – scared… She’s an old school feminist, kind of on the left, but mostly out of sympathy for the poor, and… Well, you know the type. This – new approach, this hatred and censorship and – rage – it’s frightening for her. Karen – she actually asked me if I thought she should have stayed with her ex – if that would have prevented Jayda from becoming – this. I had no idea what to say to that. It’s such a mess, I don’t know how we can – clean everything up. Or anything…”
“It’s kind of everywhere…” whispered David’s wife Jennifer. “I can’t even turn on the news…”
Richard nodded. “Yes, but we are trying to work with – one individual, not a whole – continent.”
There was a pause.
People outside the immediate family tightened their mouths.
Oliver’s father Patrick turned to him abruptly. “Ollie, so quiet…”
Oliver shrugged, his face set.
“Unusual…”
Oliver stared at him.
His father frowned. “I have the feeling that you would be the best person to talk to her…”
Oliver shook his head. David’s boy Kyle asked for a drink. Jennifer got up.
“What, you’re not the best person to talk to her, or you won’t do it?”
Oliver scowled. “It doesn’t matter what I do.”
Silence. The dark wind whirled through the high trees above them.
“Why not? She’s not beyond – hope.”
Oliver sighed and shifted in his chair. “We’ve talked to her twice. Sure, we can go again, but it won’t make any difference. She’s a machine. I don’t see any free will there at all. She’s not even admitting there’s any kind of problem! We are the problem…” Oliver gestured at the air. “She has her friends, her media, her podcasts and forums – everything that reinforces what she already believes. She doesn’t think outside of it, so she doesn’t have anything to compare her proposed actions to – that means: no free will. Always has…”
His mother snorted. “But – she still has a soul, she can change…”
“What’s the evidence for that, mom?”
Marie’s eyes shifted from side to side. “I’m sure you don’t mean…”
“No, not the evidence that she has a soul – the evidence that she can change!”
“The fact that she has a soul means that she can change!”
“You don’t have to lecture me on basic theology, mom – I get that. But those…” Oliver’s jaw clenched briefly, and he took a deep breath. “People like her just double-down, they have no idea how to engage in – rational retreat. Or self-criticism. Or compromise. They have all these simple, easy answers – we all know this – that are totally wrong. Just – slogans. Facts don’t matter, reason doesn’t matter, God doesn’t matter, science doesn’t matter – the only thing that matters is what – feeds their anger.”
“But – where does it come from?” demanded Marie.
“Rebellion? That’s as old as Lucifer, as old as Adam – as old as Cain and Abel.”
“But this new – modern way…”
Oliver shrugged, then turned to the table as a whole. “Everyone – come on, tell me about the last difficult thing you did – morally.”
A shiver of glances ran around the table.
His father said: “I confronted an atheist in the park, who was talking to children about ‘cultural’ morality.”
“How did that go?”
Patrick smiled tightly. “He could – well, you know how it is, everyone is just dying for the easy road, and he could just smile and laugh and point at me, make a couple of stupid jokes… I don’t know if I did the cause any good…”
“Mom?”
Marie said: “Well, my last conversation with Jayda and Karen was – really difficult.” Her voice wobbled. “I keep thinking that I should have done more, decades ago… And Karen was so lost, and so volatile… I thought that by – staying in contact, we – I – could do more good than harm, but I don’t know that – now…” She shivered. “I think that every time I see them, Jayda just ends up – further away from everything… And Karen – well, she’s like a ghost at the moment, these days. She’s just beaten down, used up… Jayda is – hollowing her out. There is so much worry, so much despair – and I don’t know how to counter it, I’ll be straight honest. If we could pray together…” She took a deep breath. “I have no – purchase on that child. Nothing left in – common.”
David said: “I wrote a whole rebuttal to something Christopher Hitchens talked about – it was really tough, he’s got some very good arguments, and I had to pray very hard for inspiration. I got through, but it – I took some blows, to be honest…”
His wife Jennifer said: “I feel bad, I haven’t done anything quite so – adventurous. That bitter man at the end of my street, in the house with the military green roof – I’ve been taking him lunch, trying to convince him to come back to the church, because his health is failing, but he – he saw so much in the wars that he’s given up on God completely… I mean, I’ve been telling him that the devil sows war in order to harvest the hatred of God, but he is so full of pain and anger – he won’t even answer the door when I come by any more, and I just wonder…” She sighed. “I guess like everyone, whether I’ve just driven him further away – but what am I supposed to do, just let him – fall forever?”
Diane said: “I had to intervene at a playground where some kid was screaming that he was Jesus, and jumping on puddles…”
There was a murmur of relieved laughter.
“I know, it is kind of funny – but it’s serious, too… I – can’t imagine doing anything like that when I was their age, and that’s only 20 years or so ago.”
Oliver’s father Patrick quoted: “‘There are decades when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen.’”
Diane pointed at him and nodded. “That’s the question, isn’t it, Dad? Should we have done more?”
Richard raised his upper lip above his long yellow teeth. “Come on Diane – we are just inheriting this mess from 150 years ago… The moment people turned their children over to the state, this world was set in stone… People put the material above love – a paycheck above their children, obedience to bosses over obedience to God – and now, we’ve got a couple of generations raised in daycare, they’ve just lost the maternal instincts completely, and – view time with their kids as a kind of torture…” He sighed. “But none of this helps with Jayda. We’re talking about one little person, not a big movement.”
Richard turned to Oliver.
“You don’t think she can be helped?”
Slowly, Oliver said: “I don’t think that helping her changes much.”
The inevitable female gasps ran around the table. Even the men frowned.
“Why not?” asked Richard neutrally.
Oliver paused for a long moment, deeply considering his words.
“I asked you all what morally difficult things you had done lately, because – that’s the whole point, morality is hard, being good is – really challenging… You have to confront yourself, your own laziness, your own – avoidance. Your fallen nature. You have to rise despite yourself. But all – Jayda has to do is just – hate. Surrender to violence – you know that’s where she’s heading, that’s what she applauds… Hatred is easier than virtue – she can feel virtuous by doing harm, there’s no way out of that trap…”
Oliver’s grim words were slowly considered by the bright eyes around the deep shadows on the table.
“Okay – let’s vote,” he said finally, staring steadily around. “But not with the kids here.”
“I can take them inside,” said Diane. “Come on, kids – let’s put a movie on!”
Scattered murmured conversation drifted across the white tablecloth until Diane returned. She had pulled the curtains wide in the family room, so everyone could see the children settling in.
Patrick said: “What are we voting on exactly?”
Oliver pursed his lips. “Hands up if you think society can continue on its current path.”
Silence hung over the gathered men and women. A certain dizziness shivered through the gathered souls, as perspective wrenched their mental eyes to the darkened skies.
No hands were raised.
Oliver nodded grimly. “All right – how many here think that society will last in its current state for another 25 years?”
No hands.
“10 years?”
Nothing.
“Five?”
Silence.
“I don’t know if you’re all just hypnotised, or if you really don’t think that society can last another half decade…” It was halfway between a question and a statement.
Mild qualifications and protests swirled around the table.
David shivered and said: “Oliver, we all know that you have a certain – specialised perspective. What is going on?”
Oliver said simply: “I wake up every morning, expecting to hear trumpets overhead.”
There was a shocked silence. Several of the adults were tempted to laugh, but a kind of helpless seriousness froze their tongues.
“Oh, come on!” said William angrily. “My wife is pregnant!”
“I know,” said Oliver sadly. “I’m not saying this because I want to hurt – anyone.”
“End times,” murmured Keith. Sitting next to him in the dark, Iris shivered.
Oliver gestured at all the pale faces. “We all – believe and accept these truths. I think about – Jayda, just about every day – with great sorrow, but good reason… We all know that forgiveness is not something that you just will, outside of the other person’s – actions. I would fall to my knees before her if Jayda apologised – or took any kind of responsibility. But she is an NPC – a nonplayer character, programmed by an empty culture into a kind of – weapon.” His voice rose suddenly “Against us! You heard her – that we have to just get out of the way!”
Oliver’s eyes were dark and fierce.
“You know that those who worship the devil always proclaim their intentions, so that their ‘karma’ doesn’t blow back on them. If they tell us exactly what they are going to do, and we don’t listen, or we support them, or we don’t get out the way, then it’s not on them. It’s on us. Jayda hates us, she has been trained to, and I don’t see any – indication that she has any will or capacity to fight that hatred. It’s tough enough dislodging a devil when you are desperate to – when you’re happily married to one, you’re totally lost…”
Marie whispered: “No one is ever totally lost…”
“I get that in theory, mom – I really do… But dad asked for my opinion…” He raised his hands. “I can stop here, I don’t want to say anything – against what is right.”
His father said: “We asked, you answer… Please.”
Oliver inhaled through his nose and counted his fingers with his other hand. “First, we go to the sinner privately – then we go as a group, then we go as a church – as a family, because of course for the first 300 years, Christianity was just 25 people in a room. We can try again – I want us to follow Scripture – but in my view, today – tonight – was the third try. Jayda didn’t apologise, she didn’t offer to make amends, she didn’t even admit fault – this was the third time, and after this – she’s out. And you know why she’s out? Because we are not doing her any favours by protecting her from the effects of sin! She is rejecting God, love, virtue, empathy – and us – and it’s more than just rejecting – I think she would drive a truck over us if we stood between her and her imaginary paradise! It’s not like it would be the first time in history… And we – we are Christians, tragically we are often at our very best when we are being persecuted! The world is telling us very clearly what it intends to do with us – it’s everywhere, you can’t miss it, I won’t let you! It’s time to get to safety! Like Noah. And I’m not suffering any bite marks trying to pull everyone on board. If they want to stay – that’s free will…”
Marie said: “I thought you said that Jayda doesn’t have free will!”
Oliver shook his head rapidly. “We are born with free will, just like we’re born with healthy lungs – that doesn’t mean we get to keep either if we do everything wrong! She’s 27 years old. If you sit for long enough, you just – lose the ability to stand. The only muscles she’s been exercising are hatred and rebellion. And she can do that because…” Oliver visibly bit his tongue.
“Because – why?” asked Iris, leaning forward, fascinated.
Oliver’s eyes narrowed. “Because – the State provides for her. State daycares raised her, State schools pretended to – educate her. The same State schools – employ her, and she can’t be fired, and she doesn’t have to do any good at all – in fact, I believe, based on what I’ve seen on her social media, that she is doing great harm to – the innocents.” His voice grew in grim passion. “And we all know what Jesus said should happen to those who harm the least among us – that millstones should be hung from their necks, and they should be thrown into the deep water! And Jayda believes that she will be provided for by the State, given healthcare by the State, supported in her retirement by the State – she has married Caesar. She is – bought and paid for, in perhaps the worst way…”
Iris turned to Keith. “Oh, this is what you were talking about? The men’s rights stuff?”
Keith shrugged, then nodded slowly.
Oliver continued: “‘Thou shalt not steal’ - and everything Jayda has is stolen! We pay, she takes! She knows we homeschool, but she would never support that we get any tax credits for that – she hates school choice, any competition… She is married to the Beast! I wish I could put it more gently, but the hour is getting – late.”
Everyone knew that Oliver was talking about more than the darkness of this particular evening.
Oliver leaned forward. “Jayda can’t reason with us because she is taking from us! We know how the Devil works – he offers everything for free, then takes everything you have. We are the golden geese, and she wants to – cut us open. She thinks that will liberate her, we know that it will end her – or at least her life as she knows it. The Devil hides that knowledge from her… Oh, he will reveal it when it’s too late to change anything, but until then she will be insufferable in her hateful suffering!”
Oliver stood up suddenly.
“I’m sorry, but I do feel very – strongly about this. Come on! We twiddle our thumbs and make plans and try to save enemies who hate us – but the point of forgiveness is to become safe! We get angry – as Jesus did, no sin – we confront, we expect apologies and restitution – if we get them, we are safe. If we are scorned, ignored – or attacked – we ostracize, and get safe that way! Listen, ladies – I love your sensitivity, I love your empathy, I love your warmth and concern – but we – we men are the ones who are going to have to fight if everything goes to hell… Save your tenderness for your children, we face predators in the world!”
There was silence. Iris’s eyes were gleaming. She took Keith’s hand without looking at him.
Oliver’s voice softened. “We know who runs the world…” His eyes fixed on each person’s face, one by one. “And we sure as hell know who’s winning.”
Chapter 7: https://freedomain.locals.com/post/3470840/the-present
