(Cont.)
Now Yeshua was old and worn out; and the Volcano said unto him: “You are long past your expiration date of thirty-three years, but there remain yet very many places that our caravan needs to tour. When I first drew up our itinerary, I assumed that the route would take us less than a decade; never did I figure on traveling for multiple generations. But the workforce took forever just to get started, and then they faced so many setbacks along the way. Let me now read to you a list of all the realms that we are scheduled to visit . . .”
And the Volcano’s list continued for nine full chapters.
Let the story now flash forward, however, to the point where the road trip has crossed the finish line, so that we all can enjoy the feeling of a happy ending. Then Yeshua the Zealot will give his last speech, and the book can close.
HOW EVERYTHING EVENTUALLY TURNED OUT
So the Volcano took the workforce that he rescued out of the Empire on a worldwide tour, and the multitudes mixed and mingled with all. The Volcano led them to blissful interactions, in each new land, and they had a wonderful time powwowing with the inhabitants. They danced and played. And they met no enemies; they befriended everyone. The volcano of potential caused all the nations to favor the outcasts. Thus, not a single prophecy failed of all the good things that the Volcano had promised to his wayfaring multitudes: all came to pass.
YESHUA’S FINAL SPEECH
Now, a long time after the Volcano had finished stirring his wayfarers into the rest of the world, it happened that Yeshua the Zealot became elderly and decrepit. On that day, Yeshua summoned before him all the multitudes of the workforce that he had traveled with, and he delivered the following address.
“Dear wandering wayfarers, greetings from your personal savior Yeshua. It seems like only yesterday that I shed my blood for you on the battlefield, in El Cortez and among the Infraborians, back before we made amends with the civilized world and abandoned war for peace and harmony. But look at me now: I am old and worn out. Over our lifetime of traveling together, you all witnessed firsthand the marvels that the Volcano accomplished for us. He guided us through many nations – Cambridge; Las Vegas; the City of Emeralds – and we melded with each one. And some of you took root in the places that we toured: you decided to become permanent residents. Thus we settled the Great Basin Rainforest, which was formerly a desert, and a few among us even still live in the great sea westward. The volcano of potential keeps refilling us with good luck, wherever we go and whoever we meet. Remember Moses, by the way? What a fine commander he could have been; it’s too bad that he had to die so early: I wish that he could have come along with us. Anyway, I just wanted to speak some final words, before I myself go down to Sheol. Now, regarding these nations that we visited: like I said, some of you chose to remain with their inhabitants; and, in other cases, their natives chose to join our caravansary – either way, since our respective cultures were alien to each other, we all ended up meeting a lot of new deities; they met our friend Yahweh the Volcano-god, and we met their various spirits and demons and jinn, whose names are so strange. Now here is my plea: When you end up swearing by these foreign divinities (actually, by the time you have accepted them into your heart, they will have undergone naturalization and thus become local and familiar; but you catch my drift) and bowing down to them in prayer and in worship, do not neglect your own volcano of potential: for he it was who saved your grandparents out of the Empire, with superior magic and miraculous plagues. Always hold the Volcano dear to your heart: don’t let his name get lost in the shuffle. Consider this: if he had not deigned to guide us, then how would we ever have made it out of the wilderness? Moses told me that Jethro knew the way – he was an expert navigator – but we can’t expect the high priest of another culture to drop whatever it is that he’s doing and make our people his priority. So let’s not forget all the energy that the Volcano dedicated to managing our adventure. He could have spent that time reclining in contemplation, in his own dimension, like many other gods would certainly have done. But he is not a normal deity: he is very special, and he cares for us deeply. He took an interest in us, when no one else cared – all those other immortals, without even blinking an eye, would have simply let the Empire overwork our ancestors. And a less lenient deity might have abandoned us to international justice, when we burst into genocidal rage, back in Reno, etc. But our Volcano stood by us: he truly believed in us. Therefore, I repeat: do not allow these flashy new gods that you have met cause the Volcano to fade from your memory. When you cleave unto these new nations, and make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you, be sure to preserve your esteem for the one who transformed your hope into reality: the one who made your dreams come true.”
And the goat-eyed wild man, who at a certain point had appeared among the crowd in his vortex and caught the last half of this speech, now stepped onstage and said: “Thank you, Yeshua, my son. That was kind of you to say. I want to stress that I will be very happy if you all continue to intermarry with the nations that we visit: I will supply you with good fortune, and I will bless you in the land, wherever you go. As for these other daemons that some of you have begun to serve and bow down to, I am not jealous: everything flows from the same source, and I have all the power. Moreover, we, being many, are one body, one life: we are all partakers of the same spirit. It would suit me fine if I were to return to being invisible and unknown; that happens every so often, for stretches of time: it is never a problem. Have some accused you of worshiping devils or idols? Such accusers are part of this earth, too. Do not worry about a thing. I will never suffer you to be tempted above what you are able to bear. (Or, at least, upon encountering overtemptation, I will rig your being to abort its existence.) This planet is the Volcano’s, and the fulness thereof. So, whatever you do, do it with compassion and for the sake of friendship and harmony.”
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