The thing about Emily is that she doesn’t have a single form. Just like women often change clothes, she often changes form. This time, her hair is the hue of a dark red flame; it burned as intensely as her words.
“Are you talking about the story about the fruit and the snake? I’ve seen that dream countless times. Can’t these people come up with new stories?” Orphen has been having these talks with Emily for what seemed like an eternity at the time and he has figured out several things that really rub her the wrong way. Some of the worst offenders were repetition and mundanity.
“Redundant or not, they’re probably right. I mean, now that we know that everything is just a series of chemical reactions, what’s the point of it all? My choices, my memories, even love can easily be manipulated with drugs and hormones.” His furrowed brows were like war trenches for his ideas.
“So you believe that ignorance gives life meaning?” Her bladed words contrasted her current pale, brilliant form. Even though the sun is just another memory to her, freckles gently peppered her otherwise flawless skin.
The trenches in his forehead deepened and shook. A nuclear explosion in his mind was the cause. During the aftershock, Orphen said, “Kind of… With ignorance comes mystery. And with mystery comes hope.”
The flame she called her hair ignited the blue skies in her eyes. It took all of Orphen’s will to not melt under her intense gaze. “Hope that there’s something more? You humans are always too greedy. If there is a God, I pity Him… or Her. Whatever She or He gives you, you will never be content." Emily sighed and the universe cried out in dismay. Her eyes welled up with sympathy, she said, “feeding the infinitely hungry, what a terrible job.”
“Besides, if you open up a clock and find out that gears make it tick, does that make time meaningless? The problem is the fact that people WANT to manipulate the gears of the mind. Knowledge isn’t the downfall of man, nor is it the power that comes with knowledge. Your downfall is greed and arrogance.” Sympathy turned into wrath; her mood as fickle as her form.
To Orphen, she looked like a raging Goddess, ready to smite her disobedient creations. But instead of being afraid, he was enthralled. And that idea, the idea that he already belongs to her, scared him a bit. And then, a moment of lucidity came, he asked, “Come to think of it, I’ve never wondered what you are. Could you actually be God or are you just a series of chemical reactions in my fucked up head?”
The storm cleared, the wildfire calmed, Emily smiled, “Ha! You’re having a laugh aren’t you? Why would I make such whiny, destructive creatures? I am but a record keeper. I don’t create anything. I just store memories that I find interesting.”
“To what end?” Orphen asked.
“That may be the dumbest question you’ve ever asked me. You really are crazy, aren’t you?"
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| "We are all broken, that’s how the light gets in." - Ernest Hemingway |
