A sort of showdown

(Cont.)

And it came to pass, when William the Quaker of Pennsylvania had heard those things, that he sent a “meet me at Mirror Maze” message to a long list of confederates: to Third Samuel, king of the Mississippi Waterworks; and to Augustine, oligarch of the City of God; and to the Czar of Utopia; and to the Chief Executive Officers that occupied the Shining Country on a Hill, just south of Canada; and to the wild hawks of the Pit; and to the British colonizers on the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River; and to the Harvardites on the east and on the west; and to the Columbians, and the Cornellians, and the Princetonians, and the Yalies in the mountains; and to the Brunonians and Dartmouthians under the fountain of the kegs.

And they all went out, and they brought their populations with them: much people, their number being even more than there are colored spheres in a gumball waterfall; with horses and chariots very many.

And when all these masses were met together in Mirror Maze, this multiplied their likenesses even more. It was astounding.

Then the Volcano said to his workforce, which was camped nearby at the Hanging Pond: “Be not afraid because of all these extra images. They are simply prefiguring what shall happen when we all proliferate our similitudes on the earth, by way of broadcasting to overseed the blessing. For, as you know, our mission is to mix and mingle and meld. Therefore, behave yourselves: refrain from hamstringing their horses; and do not burn their wagons with flames. If any of you need a fiery chariot, I will send you one from the heavens. Keep strictly to dancing and playing and feasting.”

So Yeshua the Zealot rose up and led the shock-troops with him, against the Mirror Maze of a sudden; and they fell upon them tenderly.

And the Volcano favored their efforts, and all the people partnered up, males and females, and they danced and played all the way from the Crystal Cabinet on the moony side of the Maze, to the place where the minotaur was hiding, in a balcony of the Red Room. And they feasted in celebration under the fountain of the kegs. And not one was left out who wished to join the dance.

And Yeshua the Zealot was conscientious, and heeded the words of the Volcano: he refrained from houghing their horses and burning their wagons.

Then at about four o’clock, Yeshua turned back to mingle with the Penn Quakers, and he found their chieftain William; and the two men began to talk, and their respective families entered into the discussion, and they all enjoyed each other’s company. And they agreed to make an exchange; so Lilith took William, while Yeshua went off with Gulielma and Mrs. Callowhill. Thus, they shared their wives, just like the Eskimos did in that one Hollywood movie.

And the multitudes of the workforce of the volcano of potential continued to mix and mingle and dance and play with all the nations that had gathered at Mirror Maze, and they even coupled with their reflections. Reality herself outdid the scenes from the wildest dreams that the patriarchs ever conjured in fear, when the Volcano first promised this population explosion.

And the workforce that had escaped from the Empire melded with every other group of people; but Yeshua alone melded with all the Penn Quakers. (Read nothing into this; I only mention it because it truly happened.) Of course I mean: he and Lilith.

And all the citizens of the different places bestowed gifts upon each other, which they had brought from their respective treasuries. And they offered each other all varieties of cattle, and sheep, and fowl; and the Volcano shared his goats.

So, everything that the wild man had instructed Moses to do finally got done. It is unfortunate, when one thinks about it, that Moses had to die so early. He would have liked to see this day.

Thus all these nations produced offspring with the Volcano’s rescued workforce, and plenished all the surrounding lands: all the hills, and all the south country, even the place where Ancient Egypt used to be, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Sinai, and the rolling fields where Jethro’s herd liked to graze; even from the southernmost mountain owned by Baal, all the way over to Dartmouth, and then draw a dotted line till it reaches the valley of Yahweh’s other brother, the Lord of Luck; in short, all these places that were previously uninhabited now got filled with happy youth of a new generation.

The Volcano established a lasting peace between all these civilizations. There was not one city at war with another, and no place mistreated its workers; for the Empire dissolved; and there were no longer any working classes, but every citizen alike participated, with free heart and good cheer, in any necessary labors. Such tasks were divvied equally, while the doers thereof were greatly honored and richly compensated.

There was not a city that had any problem with the workforce of the Volcano: they got along well with everyone, and there were no wars or battles. The only abnormality in their international relations is that they could not stop the Harvardites from waiting upon them as servants; but this they did from their own freewill – the workforce in no way encouraged such behavior. Also the Brunonians tended to bow and scrape before them.

For the Volcano provoked the heart of every citizen into a state of sublimation, till all were in their own way distinguished, so that they should no longer desire to fight and destroy each other.

Even the Giant Angels who came down out of heaven and built themselves houses in the mountainous areas around the Happy Isles and the legendary “Promised Land,” from Tartarus all the way to the Hills of Gold, and who settled most of the highlands of Eldorado: the Volcano’s multitudes mixed and mingled with them as well. And the Volcano himself had three residences among that people’s dominions: one upon the lakefront of Pandemonium, one near the lip of the Abyss, and one hard by the Infernal Council Chamber.