They Saw It

The story was inspired by imaginary experiences and a legendary man named Orson Welles.

A very, very short story by yours truly, Josiah Ramsek.

Part I: Picked up the Kids from Church and They Saw It

“What David is saying here, or rather implying, is that God has a way to get around your mischief. Take that in for a second. You know, all of us we get used to it—don’t we? We get used to living like sinners and getting everything and everyone we want. But that’s how the Bible just flips it around. That’s what it always does. It takes our human way of thinking and turns it on its head. It’s just incredible. No other book will do that. Go search the libraries. Go search the great grand libraries they’ve got in Washington DC. I’ve been there. I’ve seen it. As a matter of fact they had a Bible there. The original King James Bible. It’s beautiful. The style of it is absolutely stunning. It may be one of humans best work of art. But that’s the funny thing isn’t it. It’s not really humans work at all. Because it’s the Bible. But God used humans to write it. God allowed us humans, with His inspiration of course, to write His holy word. Let’s pray.”

The Johnson family stood in the hall. The five children stood there every Sunday right after the sermon. They would stand with there with their dad who was waiting for the elder to walk through. Mr. Johnson would thank the elder for the sermon and point out some deep theological point that was made. Richard, the youngest of the age of four, would sometimes run downstairs, down to the basement where they had rows of stacked chairs in a large hall which was used by the kids for many certain games such as tag, freeze tag, and Chinese tag. They would run around like a rat and a cat. Richard was usually the “king” in all the tag games. He was the master at it. But this Sunday he was sitting up against the wall talking to another boy. “One time, probably like two hundred days ago, there was this boy playing tag and then he just fell over and hit his head on the stack of the chairs and they all fell down and crushed his head. They go to a different church now.”

In the van, Mr. Johnson asked the kids what they learned from the sermon, “Come on. Anything! Did anybody learn a single ounce of anything?”

Richard spoke,

“I liked the point about judgement. How the whole world is going to blow up in any time.”

“Thank you Richard.”

There was a prolonged period of silence ranging from forty seconds to seventeen minutes.

“Who wants to go to Arby’s?”

Part II: Tell the Dogs that I Will Have Them

A manicured daisy with Roman robes and bright pink lipstick said in a deep voice, “the world will only so long be willing to gain its voice. The time is coming, and may already be here when stars will fall from their place and pierce the heart of every hardened heart of Rome. Then the people will rejoice. They will dance and sing for four hundred years. They will bow down to the leaping angels of the temples and tremble in the presence of I. Soon will be the day of our great triumph. The Great War will thence be put away and the rest, the temporal rest, will commence. Just think of it, just think darling.” Then four seconds of silence before he broke out in a completely British accent, “how was that! I felt it in that one I really did. Cut the lights will ya, I’ll be blind with another five minutes of those.” He walked off the set which was identical to a throne room in some Roman palace. He stopped in his tracks when he saw someone. Someone he had been dreading to talk with. She chased him down and said, “hey mr Wilfred. Mr Wilfred! Management wants to talk with you about the costs of future sets. You are going way beyond the budget that you were given.”

“Oh don’t be such a pig about it. I’ve stayed under my budget haven’t I? I was given two million. From my calculations I’ve only spent about one so far.”

“Yes I know. But you know well enough that you’re not even a quarter ways finished with the film. With sets like this you’ll be well on your way to spending double your budget. Management will not accept this. I’ll have you know they never really approved of this film either. Don’t play around where you should be worried.”

“Don’t try to scare me with your threats. I know quite well management can’t do anything to stop me. You can hardly speak for them either. You’re just an errand boy they send to give the directors a fright.”

“And Mr. Wilfred, they really don’t approve of the four hundred and sixteen dancers for scene eighty-two. Four hundred?! Management told me directly that this has gone too far.”

“Tell the dogs that I will have them.”

THE END