Prologue

{Six thousand years into the era of humans}

I totally should have studied a trade instead, Jono reflected sadly.

Jono was an awkward young fellow. He sat at a table propped up by his gangly limbs. His pale skin made his green eyes and tufts of curly orange hair seem to shine brightly. This brightness struggled amongst the heavy books on the table surrounding him.

I thought priests and ministers just got worn down over the years. Jono had come to a heavy realisation. The people I admired must have had something beyond the teachings and pompous writings that littered the place where they trained.

Yet Jono still waited at the library table for a couple to arrive for their usual study session. Jono waited, slumped on the table for the time being.

He was surrounded by shelves of books. Some with musty rows of old books weighing down sections. There were plenty of newer books with equally difficult reading and bland wrappings. Then there were colourful books of various people’s teachings and interpretations.

This should feel like a place of dreams and vision, Jono reflected. Where our study is focused on the people we are hoping to help and grow with. Instead, it feels like an oversized library in a retirement home. They just need to add nurses to make sure we are patronised, drugged and placated through the day.

It was a beautiful day and he briefly looked through the window he was sitting by to admire it. The old buildings were wrapped with dignified exposed aggregate paths and buxus hedges. Established gardens included camellias and roses amongst well-manicured lawns.

Half the car park had a fresh coat of asphalt. All the line marking had been redone to leave a crisp finish to match the sharply trimmed lawn edges, that neatly finished at the boxing. The only thing out of place in the scene was a dumpster that had been rolled onto the nearby road, ready for collection.

Jono waited, still slumped over the desk.

***

It seemed like Jono waited ages, although in all likelihood only five minutes would have passed.

Chairs scuffed on the carpet at the table next to him.

“Argh, that dragged on forever,” Angela said. “Sometimes I almost wonder if Professor Baxter is trying to make things as dry and drawn out as possible.”

“Well, we have prayed about it before. It seems right to just get through the class like others. Our class already has one clown overreacting to being formed into a sensible church professional,” Chris said.

Angela laughed, “Well, Runio definitely does make things interesting.”

At this, Jono perked up and picked up a book to pretend to read. He looked at the top of the book intently so he could focus on them and listen to ideas a fellow student was coming up with.

This eavesdropping had first started when Jono overheard the couple discussing Runio. He had asked his female classmates why they failed to follow the statutes and traditions of their grandmothers’ dress codes. This is why he had started trying to be around for their Thursday study session.

Angela had emerald eyes that sparkled with excitement as she spoke. Her brown hair was tied back in a tidy ponytail. She had a small, defined face and dignified manner. Her slight build and well-matched fashion were other pieces Jono put together to assume her family had money. She could at least still wear dresses compared to the tight pants or jeans adorning most of the other female students.

She had a lemon coloured dress with a floral print and an elegant white crochet cardigan over the top of it to help fight against the chill of some of the old rooms. Angela excitedly talked about some of the stranger members of the college that she wanted to befriend. This was another reason why Jono made sure his study sessions overlapped with the couple’s one.

“Still, I didn’t expect Runio to pull out greeting people with a ‘holy kiss’ as his next trick,” Chris mused. “Do you think he was in a church in Europe where that was part of their doctrine?”

In terms of appearance, Chris was just some blond guy who wore tidy collared shirts. He was always shaven and always had his shirt tucked neatly into his pants. In some ways, the couple looked like very short, bible college Baahbi and Kiyn dolls.

Angela laughed, “I’ve no idea. Others seem to be worrying about the lack of purity behind it, but I think it’s fun. Things get too stiff and stuffy around here.”

Chris pulled his hands to his chest lazily, “Ah alas, who thought my angel would be stolen away by such blasphemy in a bible college class?”

Angela giggled, “Don’t worry, my rock. As far as marriage is concerned, my heart is still for you. Do I need to worry about you being snatched away?”

Chris groaned, “Don’t even joke about that. As far as I can tell, Runio is just reacting against the heavy teaching. Maybe he’s using it as an excuse to kiss a few girls. That sort of bravado often ends up draining the people acting with it and I don’t think the puppets of abomination have started hunting him yet.”

“Really?” Angela asked. “Crystal was trying to imply he might bat for the other team.”

“Well, doesn’t that make her all the more suspicious with the public hinting?” Chris asked. “Do you think it was more a domination art or she’s an abominee attempting to claim another broken person?”

Darn, that pretty much sounds like the end for Runio, Jono thought. All that was left was the slow, painful social execution that would drag out as long as he acted up. For something like this to succeed, it would probably require Runio to keep the foolishness up till he graduated.

For the first time, Jono tired of the couple’s conjecture and bantering. Jono put down the book he had been hiding behind. He started pulling together the books he had left sprawled across the table and putting them into piles for the shelves they would be returned to.

A fancy new electric, self-driving garbage truck had almost silently rolled into the car park. There was a crash as its barely aligned forks juddered into the slots in the bin. It froze as if having lost all ability to operate.

Jono continued stacking the books on his table.

The truck now managed to make some progress and lifted the skip half a metre off the ground. Then it froze again.

The next moment, all of the truck’s lights flashed madly and it shot forward, propelled by the impressive torque of its electric motors.

Angela gasped in horror.

The truck’s momentum thrust the skip through the library window and pinned Jono’s legs under the table. With adrenaline kicking in, Jono only noticed he was feeling uncomfortable about the skip hanging over him.

Angela ran over and took his hand. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Well, I was definitely better when I could feel my legs and didn’t have a skip hanging over me,” Jono replied. He was too out of it to even add sarcasm. “Who knows, maybe this will be the triggering event where God leads me to become a wheelchair pastor in Africa and take up a machine gun to bring peace to the locals.”

The truck’s lights flashed again and it slammed down the skip.

Angela gasped and Chris stood behind her, stunned.

Jono’s upper body was crushed diagonally under one corner of the skip. He probably had several broken ribs and a crushed pelvis. His face and the forearm that Angela was holding stuck out the other side of the skip. His knees and lower legs protruded from the other side.

Now in shock and fading fast, Jono could only feel concern for the couple looking at the mess in front of them.

Jono gasped several times. Then he spluttered, “My only regret was not burning that book.”

He used his thumb to point at the eighth edition of Thurlow’s Expanded Guide to the Perfect Management of and Collection from Entitled Congregations lying in front of his face.

And with that, he closed his eyes.

Jono heard the book being picked up, the skip lid being lifted and the book dropped in. He felt the lid fall again and pain shot through his body.

“… You can’t do that,” Angela said.

“After the craziness that has just happened, that is what you comment on?” Chris asked. “Can’t not honour a dying man’s wish.”

Before they could say anything else, the skip rose and the truck backed away. It drove quietly and efficiently through the car park. Then it indicated left and drove off the campus grounds.

“What just happened…” Chris commented.

Starting to regain some of her senses, Angela said, “He was more interesting than I expected. We should have tried harder to get to know him instead of just passing on the interesting stories from class.”

As the last things holding Jono to the world faded, his final thought was, was I just another interesting person they were trying to add to their collection of oddball acquaintances?

Then, far off in the darkness, he felt a bright warmth starting to pull him in.