I managed to eke out a story (exactly 250 words) for this week's Indies Unlimited. I'm getting in shape for October Madness, after all.
We were asked to work off this picture.
And here is "The Stairway To Heaven."
“It’s the stairway to heaven.”
“There’s no such thing.” I said.
“As stairways?”
“As heaven.”
“If that’s what you want to believe. Tell me, are you willing to take that chance?”
He had a point. The thing about atheism is, there’s no backup plan.
I’ve always considered myself a man of reason. Of facts. But the fact is, you cannot rationally examine religion. Any religion. They all have flaws. Take Christianity. Are we to believe an old man built a huge boat, collected two of every animal, and rode out a month-plus flood which covered the earth and in the process (one would think) wiped out all plant life, and therefore every source of oxygen?
It doesn’t make sense. None of it.
And yet, here it was.
The massive staircase receded into a distance which I could only imagine. Though for my entire life, I had fought to imagine it. For fear it was real.
“You want to know. Don’t you?” asked the stranger.
“Yes,” I said.
He looked up the steps. I began climbing.
Ahead of me, coming toward me, was a man. He was walking on a different plane, one orthogonal to me, almost as if the staircase had morphed into a real-world manifestation of M.C. Escher’s Relativity.
He seemed to not notice me.
I called out. “Hello! You there. Hello?”
“He can’t hear you,” said the stranger.
“Why not?”
“He’s going the opposite way.”
“Which way is that?”
“The way those who believe are asked--invited--to go. Sorry.”
Feel free to comment on the story. And please vote for here it beginning Wednesday afternoon.
UPDATE: Apparently, "Indies Unlimited has a policy which prohibits posting material that is erotic, political, or religious in nature." So said the the email. So I guess you don't need to vote on it.
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