Solutions: The Dilemma for Men - James Gerard (read out loud books .txt) 📗

Overwhelmed by everything, thoughts began to spin.  The knees buckled.  The remnants of halfway digested food and liquid that had been left in the belly was thrown up onto the man next to him.

 

The truck came to a screeching halt causing everyone to bang into each other.  The sound of urgency was distinct as shouts of commands to jump off the truck and of batons beating upon the wooden slats of the sides.  Louis could not move, but not out of reluctance or rebellion, but purely out of the physical and mental anguish that drained the energy out of soul and body.

 

The men and women toppled and trampled him as they scurried off the truck.  Two men reached through the wooden slabs and administered jabs with the batons, commanding him to comply, but Louis was unable to react to the prodding.  He looked but could not understand the intentions of a vehicle that came rushing to the scene with a screaming siren and flashing lights.  Two men casually exited the vehicle and walked over to the rear of the truck.  Without a word, without a baton to prod him in the desired direction, they dragged him over to the edge of the truck by his arms, and slowly set his feet to the ground.  They braced him on either side by the arms.  As much as he tried he could not muster up the strength to walk as his feet scraped the ground.  The men placed Louis into the back of the vehicle and they sped off.

 

Louis heard a voice whisper, “Hang in there,” but he no longer had the mental capacity to understand the request.  Finally the body gave in to the waves of pain torturing his entire being.  He closed his eyes and drifted away.

 

The Solution of Men

 “Louis?” a voice calmly called out.  “Louis, you’re okay now.”

 

Louis slowly opened his eyes and squinted from the soft light glowing in the room.  The eyes shuit.  He could hear the voice calling to him, but the eyes were reluctant to open because of the lack of strength.  The voice was persistent.  It kept repeating the request that he wake up.

 

“I want to go home,” Louis mumbled.  “All I ever wanted was to go home.”

 

“Louis,” the voice repeated.  “It’s Emily.”

 

Finally, he opened his eyes.  The scene, the face just above was too hazy and out of focus to bring in clarity.  He immediately noticed the pain had subsided and could feel the softness of what lay underneath.  A hand felt the warmth of a soft and thick cover.  The voice, however, finally was heard as a comfort that made the physical warmth of none effect.

 

He finally recognized Emily’s voice.  He could hear the sounds coming from moving lips vaguely forming into view, and kept calling in the absence of shouts commanding him to move.  Everything around, just shadows without substance in the hazy view, was as peaceful as it could be.  More and more as the mind awoke and the body was overjoyed in the plush comfort that surrounded him.

 

Louis smiled.  With joy he whispered, “I’m finally home Emily?  Thank you Lord.”

 

“No, you’re back here with us.”

 

All of a sudden a rush of reality invaded the blissful thoughts in Louis’ mind.  He blinked and blinked in trying to focus the vision to identify the face of Emily.  He looked at his arm and noticed the tube sticking out amidst blood stained bandages.  An uncomfortable feeling of cotton fabric wrapped tightly around his head suddenly became an annoyance.  The soft light turned bright and stung the eyes.  The peaceful feeling fled at the realization he was not home.

 

“Where am I?”

 

“You’re back at the living quarters where you were before.”

 

“How did I get here?”

 

“There are some of us hidden away at the repatriation camp.  They took you out.”

 

“Repatriation camp?”

 

“Don’t you remember?  We warned you about it.”

 

Louis had a vague recollection of the warning, but the term had been foreign to him.  The experience of it, however, loomed large in the memories.  He looked up at Emily.  She sat next to him on the bed and held his hand.  Louis saw the tears rolling down her cheeks.

 

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he raised a hand to her face to wipe away a tear.

 

“It’s all my fault.”

 

Louis smiled.  Without contemplating her response, thoughts of the truth of the event from Emily’s perspective formed immediately.  The decision to tell her the truth conflicted with the compassion he felt for her in the state of sadness that produced the tears.

 

“Emily, no it’s not."

 

"I should have taken you out of dining facility immediately and taken you back here," she said while sniffling.

 

"Oh yeah," Louis responded.  "The dining facility."  He reached out again te fry a tear dripping down her face.  "Oh no Emily, You didn’t do anything wroung.  I did what I did in defense of you.  I did what I did for that man too.  He is our brother Emily.”

 

“That man you say is our brother is Councilman Torres.  He is the reason for all the things that have been happening.”

 

“That doesn’t matter.  Don’t you see, by our Lord’s truth he is not responsible?”

 

“But he….”

 

Louis could see that Emily’s voice was choked off by the flood of tears dripping onto the blanket.

 

“Where are all the others?”

 

“They’re at work.”

 

“No Emily, where are the others from the repatriation camp.”

 

“I don’t understand.”

 

“The others Emily?  Everyone that was there?  Weren’t they rescued too?”

 

“No, you were just taken out.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because they’ve been labeled malcontents.  They don’t live for our Lord.  There punishment is for being rebellious against Councilman Torres’ rules and regulations.  You were punished because you desire to live by our Lord.”

 

“No Emily, they didn’t punish me for that.  I was like anyone else there.  They did what they did to get me to believe in a lie.  Don’t you get it Emily?”

 

Emily could not respond as a fresh wave of tears flowed off the cheeks.

 

Louis contemplated his own words.  A sudden revelation fell into consciousness.  Louis could plainly see that the others left trapped in misery, regardless of what kind of behavior that brought them into the oppression, were in need of a rescue.  And it was not a matter of not believing in the Lord, but it was the inability to hear the Lord’s love from earthly vessels that had not been elected yet to do so. 

 

“Emily, in rescuing me you rescued no one.”

 

Louis could see the confusion on Emily’s face as she contemplated the words.  He even felt the confusion raging inside.  He denounced the actions of the past to which he fervently pursued in haste.  The cycles of economic and political ideas were dictated by men whose appetite for power and control were fed to them by a force greater than them.  And even though the cycles were perpetrated by the powers and principalities upon the men, by the creature that believed it could steal from the One, in reality it never could possess that which it thought it could.

 

The problem was more than apparent now.  Louis now understood that everyone that spoke out in favor of the Lord did not have the Lord’s backing, the Lord’s blessing.  Words spoken were in affect messages gone unheard by the deaf.  No one ever asked God to prepare their way so when speaking the words, the Word would be heard and heard by all.

 

He looked at Emily and felt fatigued.  He closed his eyes.   He could feel Emily move off the bed and heard the footsteps as she walked to the door.  The door opened and closed.

 

Louis opened his eyes and looked to the catheter feeding drops of unknown liquid into his veins.  Quickly, he yanked the needle out of his arm and repositioned the tape that had held it securely in place over the area that was leaking blood.  The legs swung off the top of the bed and onto the floor.  Tattered and bloodied clothing was strewn about a chair.  The blood stained shoes were underneath the seat.  Without any reservations, he dressed in the soiled clothes knowing anyone would be able to quickly identify him as an enemy of Councilman Torres.

 

Louis marched directly out the door without any thought of who may have been lurking about in the hallway.  Walking outside, seeing the guards ahead, he did not hesitate and made his way directly to the gate without any fear.  He stared down the guards with a countenance of determination and proceeded to walk right by them without them issuing a warning or a command to stop.  Louis contemplated what he was about to do without any doubt.  To sit back and hide just so a few here and there could be brought in to make the cause stronger was not appealing.

 

He walked down the street and passed by the hillside fortress without much consideration for what had happened days ago.  His focus was on the brothers and sisters ahead, but just not the ones seen, but the ones not seen as well.

 

Louis just stopped in the middle of the street as bicyclists and pedestrians passed by in all directions.  At first he did not know what to say as they looked on with somewhat puzzling looks over the many bandages about the head face, arms, and the soiled clothing that made him a misfit amongst those that stared.  But the longer he stood there, the more strength started to well up from the heart.

 

“Listen everyone,” he shouted, “do not be ignorant of the past.  Do not forget how the gods were revealed as mere men, and how the men were overtaken by the intentions of the creature that ruled over those men with cunning lies.”

 

People started to gather, but Louis could see that most were preoccupied by his ragged appearance than by the words he spoke.  He could hear snickers and sarcastic remarks coming from all around.

 

“Please, I beg you,” Louis pleaded.  “You all know that after the gods were revealed and the creature’s plan destroyed, we remembered our Lord that had thought to have been erased from memory, but we remembered.  Our lives were good.  We were at peace.  No man stood out and raised himself above us to tell us that we could have something even better if we just listen to him.  We worked together, cooperated with one another, and made God our leader.  I’m not telling you this for my sake or for yours, I am asking you to turn your eyes back to the Lord,.  Please, I beg you, stop living by the creature’s hatred and live for our Lord. ”

 

Louis heard the sound of a screaming siren in the distant but refused to yield at the prompts of a few brothers and sisters standing in the crowd.

 

“Can’t you see, we are allowing it again?  We’re allowing men, influenced by the lies to take control over us once again.  And look what is happening.  We are now against each other again.  Can’t you see the divisions and separation, the hatred and anger, and the fear that is keeping us away from one another?  But remember the lesson that came before, it is not the men who are responsible, it is the powers and principalities; it is the creature.  Please, I implore you to listen for our Lord’s sake.  All men and women are our brothers and sisters.  Do not stand up against anyone.  Stand up against