THE CHRONICLES OF GOD: BOOK 1 (Our Father)

CHAPTER 6

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'An open rebuke is better than hidden love!'
                                                        -Proverbs 27:5
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'I've spent my life trying to make things simpler.'                                                                                                                         -Hans Zimmer

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Ato and Kodjo sat in stunned silence after this declaration. They turned, facing each other with similar comical expressions of disbelief, before, suddenly doubling down in raucous laughter. Tears trickled down their faces as they held their aching sides, still shaking from uncontrollable laughter.

The boy- or God, I suppose- stared dumbfoundedly at them. This was not the response he had expected. Praise? Certainly. Wonder? Surely. Deep reverence and respect? Definitely. Shame to be in his presence? Maybe. Thanks? Needless to say. Laughter? Definitely not!

Ato began making crazy signs with his hand as he gasped for breath. Kodjo was making mocking expressions with his face as he tried- and failed- to wipe the tears running down his face with a trembling hand. Ato stopped his crazy signs to mimic his friend, both still in hysterics.

He had finally had enough. He stood up with a jolt and banged his fist furiously on the table. 'ENOUGH!' he roared, eyes flashing dangerously.

The laughter ceased instantly in surprise and the entire cafeteria went dead silent. Ato and Kodjo flinched for, the rage they had seen in the boy's eyes was enough to shoot an inexplicable current of fear through them. It was a kind of primal fear that sent a shiver down their very souls.

You may think he was angry, but he wasn't. He was furious. He had gone through a thoroughly unpleasant and highly uncomfortable experience and, he was not about to let this pair of foolish mortals make a joke of him.

'How dare you?' he snarled in a voice that was barely above a whisper. 'You have no idea what I've been through?

'I have been ripped from my home and placed in a harsh world without any idea how I got here. A world that has been cruel to me from the minute I arrived. A world whose inhabitants have shown me nothing but mistrust and disbelief. Whose inhabitants attacked me for no other reason than I appeared different from them.

'Do you have any idea what's it like to be placed in a cruel, harsh world with no way to protect yourself? Do you have any idea what it's like to be an immortal all-powerful deity who is suddenly and inexplicably stripped of his divine powers? Do you have any idea what it's like to be unwelcome in a world that you painstakingly created with love, devotion, and care?

'Do you have any idea what it's like to be scorned at and be mistreated by your own children?' he continued, his voice starting to break. 'Children you created with love, care, and strenuous attention to detail. Children whom you created in your very image and likeness.'

Ato and Kodjo both bowed their heads in shame, not being able to summon the courage to look him in the face.

'No, you do not,' the boy continued. 'How could you? You are mere men. I have gone through terrible ordeals and I would be damned if I am going to sit here and be mocked at and called crazy to my face by people who haven't experienced the tiniest fraction of what I have been- and still going -through.'

He straightened his back and fixed them both with a disappointed expression. 'Forgive me for expecting something different from both of you,' he said in a calm voice that belied the intense emotions of anger, frustration, sadness, betrayal, and hurt that flowed through him. The boy shook his head sadly and walked out of the room.