Chapter Fifteen - Day Two 7:15 AM

The Pale Rider was still at it.

I knew that when I woke to the shreek of sirens. "Jesus...," I mumbled as I made my way to the shower. I just stood there for awhile, letting the shower massage sting my body awake. "Man, I hate waking up....." Sleep can be so peaceful. If death is nothing but a big sleep, I would be okay with that. But it sure didn't seem like that was the way the system worked, if my friend The Son of Man had anything to do with it. I finally got up enough enthusiasm to wash the film of skin flecks off my body. I have to shower every morning, or I can't function.

I was shaving in the mirror when I heard something. The bathroom fan was whirring. I flicked the switch to "off." Yeah, there was something going on downstairs. i quickly finished up, pulled on a pair of jeans and gingerly made my way down. There was The Lord, lightly playing an acoustic guitar, and humming. He looked up, and said, "Good morning Theodore!"

"Mornin Jesus..." I replied. "What's up?"

"I thought we'd make another video this morning. Are you up for that?"

"Well, I am up, and I don't see any point in saying no." I was not overly enthusiastic.

"Good. There is a camera and tripod in that duffle bag, and some lights. It's all about the lighting, you know. The lighting sets the mood." Apparently, Jesus took film in college, or was at least in the AV club. "You set everything up, and I will make breakfast."

Jesus was whistling, cracking eggs, and cooking up something that smelled very good.

"Hey Jesus, where do you want me to shoot you at?" I querried.

"Put me in the corner, make sure you leave room for the guitar. This is going to be a music video." The Lord instructed.

I set everything up, turning my family room into a small sound stage. I actually liked the whole film thing.

Jesus yelled, "Breakfast is ready!" just as I was finishing putting filters on the lights.

"It smells great!" I said as I sat down.

"Dig in Tedushu!" sayith the One.

I was gobbling up my scrambled eggs, when I notice the pile of eggs shells on the sink countertop. They were small. Very small. "Ummmmm.....Jesus. What, exactly, am I eating here?" I was now curious what I had gulped down so quickly.

"Dove eggs, scrammbled with lamb and goat cheese." the Lord explained.

"Oh!" I said. "It did taste familiar..."

Jesus and I both burst out laughing.

"I figured with all those trips to China, something a little different was in order." The Lord was still laughing.

"Yeah, I ate some weird food there." I was still laughing too.

We finished up our breakfast. Jesus was rinsing plates, and I was loading them in the dishwasher.

The Son of Man put his hands on his hips and said, "There. Now we can get to our video."

"Alrighty, Lord. Let's get crackin. I should go into work today." I really did need to go into the office.

Jesus took his place on the chair in the corner. Now he was dressed in torn up jeans, and a black T-shirt that read, "CASH."

I rigged the mic as a boom, and set the lighting. The sun had moved during our breakfast.

"Okay," I said as I put on the headphones. "Sound check."

Jesus said, "Testing 1....2....3..Test.....Test.."

I set the sound levels, and then moved to the camera. The lighting looked good. The Lord looked good. It was like an MTV Unplugged video. Then I saw something, and popped from behind the camera. "Hey, umm, Jesus. You have some egg in your teeth."

"Oops. Sorry. How undignified of me." as he worked his pinky nail through his teeth. "How's that."

I checked the view finder, and zoomed in as Jesus smiled widely. "Looks good. Ready?"

"Yep. Let's go." The Lord replied.

I said, "Sound........Speed.....J.C. Music Video Take one....Action!"

The Son of Man looked into the camera and said, "Behold a pale horse," began to play the guitar and sing.

"There's a man goin' 'round takin' names
An he's deicidin who to free and who to blame
Everybody won't be treated all the same.."

The King of Kings was signing "When The Man Comes Around," by Johnny Cash

My foot was tapping along.

When he got to, "Whoever is unjust, let he be unjust still." Jesus looked right into the camera, his eyes a burning coal black.

"Whoever is rightous, let him be rightous still.
Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still.
Listen to the words long written down,
When the man comes around."

I had chills running down my spine. This was going to freak people out, and we were going to get it in one take.

"It's alpha and omega kingdon come."

The Lord finished with,
"In measured hundredweight and penny pound,
When the man comes around."

Then he said, "You can look up the rest" and gently put the guitar down.

I waited a few seconds and said, "Cut. That was perfect, Jesus."

Jesus smiled, got up and moved to the couch. "Ted, I want you to splice in a few frames where I sign, 'Let whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still' with this." He took the remote control for the TV and pressed 'On." The TV was on CNN with the image of the Reverend Joel Graham. His eyes were gone, burned out like so many others. On his forehead was a burn, like a brand. It was the Alpha. Jesus smiled a crooked grin.

Jesus started packing up his video gear.

I askith HE, "Hey Jesus, are you actually enjoying this?"

HE replied, "Enjoy? Let's just say I have wanted to do this for a long time."

"Okay......but, just what are you, we, doing?" I askith.

"You are smart guy, I am betting it will be revealed to you soon." replied HE.

On the TV in the background, the reporter was saying that people were waking up blind again today. The world was now in a full-blown panic. The terror alert had been raised to Red.

Jesus was heading out the door, with his gear, and said, "Get that on YouTube as soon as you can."

I told Jesus, "You can leave that stuff here."

The Lord replied, "Better not. All digital cameras and videos cameras encode a serial number. You don't want to be found with the video gear from a terrorist."

"Good point. Thanks Jesus."

"Thank you Ted. This is a good thing we are doing." and he was out the door.

I wasn't exactly sure what we were doing, but the project manager did. That was enough for me.

After editing the video, I loaded it up to YouTube, using some IP jumping software. Not that I thought it would hide were it came from for too long.

Just long enough.


copyright 2009 Ted Sky all rights reserved

Chapter Fourteen - Day One 7:00 PM

The afternoon at work was filled with chatter about what was going on in the world. One person had to run home. Their grandfather had woken up blind, and was stuck in his cabin in the UP.

No one knew what was happening, and they were scared. I told a few people that it was probably a reaction to the H1N1 vaccines, just to mess with their heads. People will let someone with a white coat stick a needle in there arm, because the man on TV said so. Sheep.

By the time five o'clock rolled around the building was nearly empty. It was time to go home and see what the network news had to say. By 7:00 PM, the sun had shown it's light to most of the world. And the deed would be done.

I got home and tuned into Fox News, then flipped to CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and BBC. Speculation was rampant. They seemed to be settling on a bio weapon invisible cloud of some sort. Of course, Al Queda was suspected. How a bunch of guys in caves in a faraway land would have pulled it off, wasn't explained. They didn't have to. Just throw out the boogieman, Al Queda, and everyone nodded. The fools. They didn't even know that we, well, the CIA started Al Queda back during the Afghan-Soviet war. Osama Bin Laden was a CIA asset. Hell, even the name Al Queda was created by us.

I did have to agree that this event had all the ear marks of a terror attack. Then I laughed out loud, Jesus Christ - TERRORIST. Who would ever believe that?

copyright 2009 Ted Sky all rights reserved

Chapter Thirteen - Day One 12:00 noon

I took my lunch break, and after getting a chicken salad sandwich from the company cafe', check news web site to see what was going on in the world, and if Jesus' promise to "end a great evil" had begun.

freep.com had a story about the people blinded by the chemical explosion, but it seemed the cloud did not dissipate. There were now 153 reported blindings, many from outside the containment area. Was that the work of The Lord?

I jumped over to cnn.com. All across America people were waking up blind. I decided to run home and see if their were any reports on network news.

Running out of the office, I told Mandy, my administrative assistant I would be back in an hour. My home was only a few miles from work.

As soon as I walked out the door, I heard police and ambulance sirens coming from every direction. "What the hell is going on?" I thought to myself, as ran to my SUV. As soon as I got in, and started the engine, I flipped on the radio to the local news channel, it was a special news segment on the cases of people waking up blind. "This is bad...." I said out loud.

The traffic on Brown Road was heavy, mostly due to the constant pulling over to make way for an ambulance racing past. I decided to take a short cut down Josyln and over to Flint Ridge to get to Maybee Road, which was the main road to my subdivision. It still took me twenty-five minutes for a two mile drive. Walking would have been faster.

When I pulled in my driveway, I hit the garage door opener button, parked my car and ran under the opening garage door. Walking into my kitchen, I saw my flat screen TV was already on, and a voice said, "That took you long enough." It was, The Son of Man.

"Jesus! I'm glad to see your okay. Is this your doing?" as I pointed to the TV.

"Ted, just have a seat." The Lord replied.

I sat down on the couch next to The Lord to watch the CNN Special Report. Reports of people waking up blind were coming in from all over the world. Not just blind, their eyes were gone, burned out during the night. There were warnings to remove children from the room before they showed the photos and videos of people swarming hospitals, screaming “It hurts! It hurts!” holding their faces, with black holes where they eyes used to be. Some of the holes in their heads were still smoking. "My God..." I said out loud.

"Present!" Jesus shouted. "Do you think this is Old Testament enough? Will anyone connect what I said last night with today's events?" The Lord said with a sarcatic smirk on his face.

"What is this all about?" I asked HE. "How are these people connecte?"

The Lord Explained, "The people that this is happening to don't even know what connects them. Some might suspect what their sin is, but they aren't sure. All will know in time, Theodore. I think by the end of Day Three........well, let's hope so."

I sat there watching the horror unfold across the world. I was racking my brain trying to understand this. All of these people, from all parts of the world, had something in common. Dorf Pitster was doing his best to seem intelligent, in what was quickly becoming a world-wide crisis. I looked at my watch and realized that whatever this was, it wasn't over yet. This day started at sunrise in Detroit, Michigan. It was moving West as the sun moved across the sky. Parts of the world were still under the cover of night. And it was only Day One.

Back to work.

copyright 2009 Ted Sky all rights reserved

Chapter Twelve - Day One 6:30 AM

I woke up, brushed my teeth, and looking at my aging face in the mirror. Time is cruel to us, I thought. I went down to the kitchen and got out the plastic red bowl I have used for my cereal for over thirty years. I laughed to myself, thinking how odd it was that I HAD to use this bowl to eat from. It was from margarine. My mom got it long ago, and I had taken it with me when I left home at eighteen. It is the perfect depth, and has the right pitch for my organic cereal and rice milk. I thought to myself that I should ask Jesus about the whole food allergy epidemic. "Jesus..." Was that that some wacked out dream last night? No, it had happened. Our biggest and scariest adventure yet. Up till now, my friendship with the Son Of Man was pretty much my secret. Now, a lot of people were going to know that Jesus has returned, and boy is he pissed! I got out my notebook to check how many hits the YouTube video of his sermon from the ballpark had since I uploaded it. Holy.......... 1,265,153. Over one million hits since late last night? This was going viral. It hit the refresh button. 1, 275,242. Ten thousand more views? I hit it again. It jumped to 1,313,313. There were tens of thousand of comments. Some uber-believers, and a lot of skeptics.

I looked for the remote, and turned on the TV. It was the normal AM broadcast, traffic, sports, local politics, and one story about a few people near a chemical plant who woke up blind. A leak of hydrogen chloride mixing with some other chemical was suspected. The feature story was about the mad man who took the stage last night at Comerica Park - Jesus Christ. They weren't admitting that, but I knew. I knew.

Finishing my cereal, I said I silent prayer. "The Lord is my sheperd..."

Off to work.

copyright 2009 Ted Sky all rights reserved

Chapter Eleven - The Return of The Pale Rider

My cell phone rang. The display read, “I Am.”

“Original” I thought to myself.

I hit the green answer button and said, “Hello Geeeeezuzzz!”

“Ted, my man! The circus is in town and we’re going. I will pick you up in fifteen.”

I snapped my cell phone shut, then went outside and sat down on my stoop, waiting for my latest adventure with The Son of Man to begin. At least today he was driving for change.

The sound of squealing tires punched through my suburban subdivision like a Japanese Zero on steroids making a low level bombing run. Around the corner appeared a pale grey Bentley Continental GT coupé, with Jesus grinning like a mad man behind the wheel. The Lord must have been doing 90 mph when he slid sideways, then backed into my driveway with the tires smoking. The passenger window came down, and The Lord commanded, “Get in Theodore.”

I got in the Bentley and closed the door to the sound of a $300,000 quality “thud.” “Where did you get THIS car?” I asked the King of Kings.

“At the Bentley dealer, duh! I have connections.”

We pulled out of the Rolling Meadows housing development and Jesus was headed to I 75 South. "Are we going for a tour of blighted America? Is that the 'circus?'" I asked.

"More or less." replied The Lord.

As we drove, all the construction was cleared and we passed right through.

"I will have to ride with you more often." I joked with HE.

We got off the freeway and made our way to Comerica Park. The Jumbo Sign read that Reverend Joel Graham was there today, with his “God Loves You Just the Way You Are” tour. The Lord let out a chuckle and said, “How do people keep falling for this crap?” while shaking his head.

This, of course, is the circus Jesus was referring to.

The Lord walked right through “Security” with a fake press pass with me tagging behind him like a new puppy. He marched right up to the base of the stage, turned and reached in his back pack and said, “Videotape this so we can upload it onto YouTube later.”

“Man, we are going to be in trou-ble” I thought to myself. (I wouldn’t miss it for anything on Earth, or in heaven.)

Jesus looked out over the 100,000 who gathered to hear the TV preacher, and said, “What is wrong with you people? You all go around mindless yapping about how ‘God is love.’ and ‘You are not perfect, just forgiven.’ Blah, blah, blah. Let me tell you something God is not just love, God is also vengeance! And right now, vengeance is on his mind.

There is not one of you who think for themselves. Everything you think you know has been created and fed to you by propagandists and politicians. You fall into the same game over and over again. Left versus right. Man versus woman. Black versus white. This is called the Hegelian Dialectic. It has been written about for 150 years, but you don’t know that because you don’t actually read anything. If it isn’t reported on the nightly news, it isn’t real to you. It was written that in the twenty first century you would not be able to think for yourselves. It has come to pass.

You are being lied to on such a grand scale you cannot imagine any other world than the one that has been created for you. If you are told something or someone is good or bad, you believe it. You are told to fear the people of the desert, so you do. You send you sons and daughters off to slaughter innocent people in far away lands, and they return to you broken and slaughtered. You hold onto your flag like the Holy Grail and weep for your children. Weep for all children of all people. Do you really think the Father cares what country you were born in? Do you know how many countries have appeared and vanished since the beginning? The Father did not give you a mind that was designed to think, only to have you use it as a receiver and re-transmitter of falsehoods. Here is a simple tool you can use, if ‘everyone’ thinks something is true, it isn’t. If you are told the truth by someone on TV, you haven’t been. Liars will always be liars.”

Someone shouted out, “Which is the right path? Who do we follow?

“Do not follow the herd of the red flag, or the herd of the blue flag. The only path to follow is your path alone. I have been called The Sheppard, because you are sheep, but you do not follow me. You follow others who say they know me. They do not. You follow anyone who tells you what you want to hear. What you want to hear is that there is no right and wrong. You want to hear that it is all relative. You want to hear that no matter what you do, you will gain the kingdom. As surely as there is day and night, there are good and evil. Satan is alive and well in many. Just as those who create goodness, know. Those who create evil know. It is not the sins of what you have done, or what you have thought that will damn you to hell. It is the sin of what you didn't do! It is the sin of doing nothing, DOING NOTHING is what you are all guilty of. You walk by the poor, you cross the street to avoid the crippled; you avert your eyes pretending to not see a beggar. You are supposed to be the vessels of God here on Earth. Instead, you are nothing but self-centered egotists. Every day, you spend your money on things you don’t need, for happiness you cannot achieve, all the while denying that it is up to you to change the world.

It has always been up to you!

You sit and kneel and pray waiting for me to come back and make your world all better. What you failed to realize, is that if Jesus was coming back, it wasn’t to reward the righteous. The righteous will be rewarded after this life. I suggest you go back and read The Old Testament, read of The Father’s anger and wrath to find why I am here.

Most of you will leave here today, go back to your lives and forget what I have told you. You will convince yourselves that it was just a mad man who took the stage today. The Father can no longer wait for you to act. That is why we are here. Before the sun rises, the end of one great evil begins. We are going to go Old Testament on this Earth.”

The crowd looked at each other, and wondered what great evil Jesus was referring to

Someone shouted, “What? What will you end?”

The Lord said, “Three days from when the sun next rises you will know.”

“Go now, and tell all you know that Judgment Night is at hand.”

The crowd, now stunned, was frozen. They were looking for the Reverend Joel Graham to retake the stage. The Reverend was seen coughing and rubbing his eyes, as he was whisked to his waiting limo. The great mass of people slowly dispersed, some believing that had seen the Son of Man, others were shaking their heads in disbelief.

The sound of police sirens racing to Comerica Park pierced through the air.

Jesus, left the stage and morphed into a disfigured man, to better clear the crowd. He was chuckling. “That should make the evening news! Eh, Ted?” he said to me.

“It’s going to make something….” I was officially freaked out.

The Lord let me drive the Bentley over to Culver’s for a burger and milkshake. After which, he dropped me off at home. “Remember to upload that onto YouTube tonight!” The Lord instructed me, and put the video camera into my hand.

“Hey! I don’t remembering signing up to be an apostle or whatever I am supposed to be now.” I said to The One.

“Ted, you signed up the first time your soul was angered over the inhumanity of humanity.” Jesus said.

With that, Jesus dropped the Bentley into gear and went screaming into the night.

copyright 2009 Ted Sky all rights reserved