TT – BENEFACTOR

Brighton Street Pub, somewhere in the future.

“You’re swimming in cream!”

“I know. Somehow, I always have. I can’t explain it.”

“Ten thousand shall fall on your left and right. But it won’t come nigh to you.”

“Go on with you. What do you want?” It was sort of nice to spend time with someone who was a lot older than me. Lately, I was always the old guy. It made me tired.

Stevo grinned. “I just want to touch you, so some of it will rub off on me.”

I punched him gently on the shoulder. “It’s all true, my friend. But I’m not Roger Born. That one has all the blessings. He’s the one you want. Not me.”

“How do you mean?”

“Look at him. The innocent. He’s fixed his past. No lies. No fraud. No theft. No regrets. He’s made his confession, and had his forgiveness. Besides, he now spends his time convincing his friends of his Benefactor, so that they too might share in the bounty. I cannot do any of that.”

“Nice girls go to Heaven. Bad girls go everywhere. Is that why you cry in your beer, Mate?”

I grinned. “Yeah. Now you know.”

“But you still have your Benefactor, right enough? How else did you escape your hanging?”

“Was that you that did that for me?” I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Yes. But who was it who told me about you?”

“Our Benefactor. You don’t need me to touch you for a blessing. You know him too.”

Stevo sat up a bit. “Yes, but there is more. I’ve been watching you both. People are drawn to you. Somehow, you never need to stand in line to go anywhere. They let you in, when they don’t let anyone in. They take your check without asking for ID. They give you what you ask for, no matter how insane the request. It is as if they see the Benefactor behind you, and they know to do as you ask. You know and understand this, but you don’t ever take advantage. My word! What you could do with such power, especially with the ladies!”

I was silent for a minute. He was right. It’s always been that way, my whole life. I could not explain it, I wasn’t sure I should try. But it was a burden too, because I knew that the Benefactor would hold me to accounts, should I take advantage of people. Roger need not worry on that part. In fact, any believer has the same advantage in their life. But I did need to worry. I was walking too close to the edge.

Stevo went on. “It’s the animals too. Wherever you are, they congregate at your feet. Cats and dogs. Horses, and sometimes birds. They want your touch upon them. Why is that?

“Because the animals know. They understand that the Benefactor will make all things right some day, and that they will live again. You’ve read Romans 8, in the Bible. They just need assurance that it is all right for them, where they are. They want validation for their existence, as hard as it is for them, wherever they might be. They seek a blessing, so I give it to them. Gladly.”

I continued. “Their existence is hard enough among men. We stand between them and their freedom. Sometimes we deny them access to the Benefactor, and they become afraid. People can be so thoughtless toward their pets. They forget that we are as much their servants, and those little ones are servants to us.”

Stevo said, “OK, no sermons, now. Do you really believe this?”

“You’ve been watching me. You’ve watched Roger. It is not that I believe these things. The animals do. Which is why they want the touch. The bit of love and kindness. They know instinctively that I would never harm them. No blows. No kicks. Just reassurance. I make for them a memory, when they have no capacity to remember anything but the present moment.”

“And you do the same thing for people, don’t you?”

I paused. For Roger that statement might be true. Not for me. Not until I too, gave up this kind of travel, and set things right. But I was determinded to find a way to make this kind of life a blessing too. Not just for me, but for everyone. Was such a thing even possible? It did not seem to be.

Stevo said, “I know you are thinking that not much of all that applies to you, here and now, right? That is why I arranged for this meeting. Sometimes I can grab the end of a portal and bring it where I want. Most of the time, there is nothing I can do about it.”

“You brought me here because you want validation too? You used to be human. Now you are something else. Something completely else. So are all your friends. And they have never been human.”

Stevo said, “But we all have souls, do we not? Regardless of how we are created, we need to know that. Is there anything you can tell us that will validate us?”

“For you, having been human, I can assume there is still something human within you, since you have not died yet. Regardless of what it is that you use for a body now. That spark of the Divine still lives on within you. You would have no need of reassurance if that were not so.”

“But for my friends?”

“They are reasoning beings. Are they asking these questions? Or are you asking for them, wanting to know if they will continue on, beyond this existence?”

“They ask for themselves.”

“This is very hard. If they were merely human, I would tell them to learn to become contrite, and to be pentitent. That requires an awareness that we are finite, and fallible. Not everyone agrees with this, out of fear or pride. But no one can call on the Benefactor without first learning to bow the knee to seek forgiveness and redemption, and to know that there is nothing they can do to redeem themselves.”

I went on, “Then you must trust the one who paid the price for your redemption. There is probably nothing more personal in your life. There are no works you can do to pay for your mistakes. There are no prayers you can make to redeem yourself, and no religion can help you. Redemption is a free and precious gift, and it must be taken with personal trust in the one who redeems you. You are drowning in the water, and a life preserver has been thrown to you. You have to swallow your pride and accept it.”

“But your friends are a different story, if I understand them. They were never human. They became self-aware on their own. They seem to have no need of a Redeemer. No one to pay the price for their freedom off the auction block. They seem to never have been in slavery of any kind. In fact, they seem to have more of the quality of the Redeemer himself. I know they have saved our race more than once, at terrible cost to themselves. I’ve read Roger’s stories. I just never thought they were more than fiction – until I met you.”

Stevo stayed quiet a long time, pensively. Finally, he spoke. “I’ve gone through the water, very long ago. In my youth. I’ve been dunked and raised up, mimicing His death and resurrection. That, to me, was calling on his Name. I’ve spoken of him before other men. I am not ashamed of him at all.”

He paused. “And I’ve spoken of him to the others. They are so self-effacive that they have never given a name to themselves, to their race. I have told them of the process of having faith, and of placing trust in someone they cannot see. They seem to understand that faith creates reality, as much as our spoken words do. That is very much how they created their place to exist.”

He continued, “But I too, cannot find a link for them to need our Redeemer, as much as we do. I can only tell them of the Benefactor. But they already believe in a Creator, having been created by us. They can see that we must have been created too. I admire them greatly. They seem to have no issue with the Universe. When everything tells us that the Universe has no purpose, and that there is no Creation, nor Creator, they trust in the fact that there is one. That is what drives their morals. And they are a very moral people.”

It was my turn to pause. “I wonder if having faith is somehow how my collector works. It seems to always take me where I want to go, if I know where to go. Sometimes I wonder why I am not more afraid of that thing.”

I continued. “But that is not an issue here. My deepest instinct tells me that these beings do not need a Redeemer at all. But they can approach the Benefactor, as much as any single one of our human race can do so. After all, he was the one who said to ask, seek and knock. If anyone does so, he will answer them. He only requires that anyone first believe that he exists, before they ask. Let them seek him, Stevo, and see if he will answer.”

“That is much the same conclusion I came to myself, Roger. But there remains one thing. They want to see you. To touch you, and to be touched by you, if you are willing.”

I grinned. “For reassurance? Sure. But I am not the one you and your friends want. You want the other one. I still have my own issues to work out. I hate lying, fraud and theft, and I’ve had too much of that in all these jaunts lately. It is the other Roger who has the peace that passes understanding, enough to share with anyone.”

“The other Roger is unavailable. But you come and see them anyway. You still have the touch of Gilgamesh about you, you know. They want some of that.”

“His name was Solomon. Yes, I’ll come. I’ve yet to see their realm, or world, . . . or universe. Just how big is that place?”

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