Chapter 3
Now the child Samuel ministered in the Volcano’s Temple, alongside the robo-butler Man and his bad son.
We should note that Samuel was installed in his position during an interval when the Volcano was on vacation: For he had taken some time off, before Samuel’s birth, to answer prayers (one of which resulted in the conception of Samuel himself), and, instead of returning directly, he stayed away to finish a few other matters of international business. So, from the day when Samuel was dedicated to the mosque, until this current point in the story, the Volcano had been absent, therefore Samuel had never spoken with the deity.
Most recently, Yahweh had been revisiting Rosemount, rewarding Samuel’s mother, the Virgin Marylin, for faithfully keeping her end of their deal. But this was the last of his errands that he had desired to accomplish, at that time; so, he was now finally ready to return to the temple. Before he did so, however, he chose to give Samuel a call, so he could speak with him before ultimately meeting in physicality. Thus, we pick up our story on the night when Yahweh telepathized with Samuel over the ether:
Now it came to pass that the robo-butler Man was docked in his crib-station, and he was in sleep mode. Samuel also was laid down to sleep: his bed was situated between the Nightlight of God and the Ark of Remembrance.
Suddenly the Volcano called Samuel. And, from his bed, the lad answered: “Here am I.” However, assuming that it was the robo-butler who had shouted, Samuel ran over to Man’s place in the temple, and shook the android out of sleep mode. But Man said: “I did not call you; lie down again.” So Samuel went and lay back down.
Now the Volcano called yet again: “Samuel!” And Samuel arose and went to the robo-butler, saying: “Here am I; for you just called me.” Yet Man answered: “I called you not, my son; lie down again.”
Neither the robot nor his assistant expected to hear from the Volcano at that hour, so they both were confused.
Then the Volcano called for Samuel again, a third time; and the lad arose as before and hastened to Man, and said to the android: “Here am I; for you did call me.” Yet now the robo-butler was sufficiently awake to perceive that the Volcano must be trying to pray to Samuel through the medium of brainwaves, by way of psychometry or some sort of numinous perception: therefore Man said unto Samuel: “Go, lie down; and if you hear the voice again, don’t run to me, but stay in your bed and shout in answer, saying: ‘Speak, O Yahweh; for your servant is listening,’ then explain that you are lodged by the nightlamp, in the wing of the temple that has the room with the ark. For it must be that the Volcano is trying to tune into your mental signal, and this way he will know more precisely where to locate you.”
So Samuel went and lay down in his bed.
However, by this point, Yahweh had given up on prayer: he was close enough to the temple that he decided just to go and visit in person. When he entered the building, it was dark. The thick smoke from his vortex filled the mosque, and most of the torches had been extinguished. Once his goat eyes adjusted to the dim light in the entryway, being eager to meet his new colleague, he navigated to the proper quarters; and, standing between the lamp and the ark, the Volcano roared out: “Samuel! Samuel!”
Then Samuel, shocked by the closeness of this call, which made both his ears tingle, bolted upright in bed and yelled back: “Speak; for your servant is—” then he broke off, seeing that the Volcano was standing there before him in the room. Once he regained his bearings, Samuel exclaimed: “O! welcome, Sir. I am your new assistant; very pleased to meet you.”
And they shook hands; then the Volcano said to Samuel: “It was my intention to oversee your initiation, but I had matters to attend to abroad; I’m sorry that I was absent for so long. But, better late than never; it is good, at last, to speak with you mouth to mouth. I wanted us to meet immediately, because I plan to do a thing that might seem shocking, and I wish to soften the blow by giving you warning: it is not characteristic, but it needs to happen. – Very soon, I shall judge the bellboy Douglas (that droid whom they say resembles King Bryan’s earthly father); after inducing a span of befuddlement in his circuitry, I shall bring him down to the grave. Normally, with machines, we just shut them off, and re-engineer them, swap out parts, or give them new programs; but this one has been a real problem here at the temple; his inhumanity is off the charts, thus the situation calls for drastic measures: I wish to make an example of this unit; moreover, I’m always keen to raise others into a perception of the infinite.”
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After his encounter with the Volcano, Samuel slept until morning; then opened the doors of the mosque. But, because of what Yahweh had warned him was in store for the android’s son, when Samuel saw his colleague the robo-butler, he attempted to avoid him, fearing that the bot might ask him to tell of his midnight tête-à-tête with the Volcano, since to do so might end up hurting the machine’s feelings.
Man the robo-butler then called Samuel, and said: “Samuel! Samuel!” And he answered: “Here am I.” And Man said: “Why are you avoiding me? What did you two talk about last night, when you met the Volcano? I pray that you hide nothing from me; or, if you do, then may the gods hide important news from you similarly, tit for tat. Come now, what’s the scoop?”
So Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from his friend. He thought that the android would be devastated to learn that his son the robo-bellboy was to be fired and dragged down slowly to Hell twice over. But the butler’s reply was stoic – he said: “It is the Volcano: let him do what seems him good.”
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