CHAPTER 53

CHAPTER 53

DAVID HERINGER

DAVID SAW THE IMAGE of the woman of his dreams coming closer and closer, he didn't know if it was dream or reality, if he was alive or finally dead, to him nothing else mattered, that vision was everything, being beside Ivy, the his Ivy, was the main purpose of his existence.

Nothing else mattered to him...

— You came? He whispered as he caressed her beautiful face.

— I'm here, honey, you don't have to worry about anything else.

DAVID SLEEPS LIKE a long time he hasn't slept, although it had only been a few weeks, it seemed that those days in the future had been years, however, little by little he was adapting, but something was scaring him, he didn't know why, but his long hair were falling by the tappets, that week was a long torture for him, little by little he was becoming one of them.

DAVID LOOKED AT HIMSELF in the mirror and saw himself bald for the first time in his life.

— I don't understand...

— It's one of the side effects of Omega-Red, it just makes all the hair on the body fall out, so no one has hair here in the future.

David stroked his own head and was amused.

I made so much fun of them that I'm now a...

— My mother was always begging me to cut my hair, and here it just doesn't grow anymore.

— She would be very proud of the man you've become.

David nodded happily at the memory of his mother.

— And Brian?

— It's waiting for you after breakfast.

He nodded again.

— It's going to be all right, honey, Brian is a spectacular boy, he reminds you a lot of you in many ways.

David hugged his wife who was also bald.

— Hair or no hair, you're extraordinarily beautiful, you know that?

— You make a nice broth too.

BRIAN WAS SITTING STARING at the quiet horizon.

— Is everything okay, son?

He nodded.

— You miss him, don't you?

— He was my father and mother until you woke up.

— Burke was a great man.

— He changed humanity forever with a simple formula.

— There were good and bad things, but the important thing is that we are here, together.

David hugged his son and they were quiet for a moment.

— Did your mother ever tell you how we met?

— I read your biography, I know everything about you and about my mother, I don't think there's much you say that I don't know.

— Did you at least like what you saw?

— It doesn't matter to me, like it or not like it doesn't change anything.

— Like this?

— You two had a great history together, success, fame, money, literally the world at your feet, but you both gave it all up to live crazy.

— What makes you think I chose this?

— If you didn't stop it from happening then your choices took you here, father, the fact of omitting yourself is also a choice, you let them choose their destiny.

David was finding it strange to see his son speaking so coldly.

— Not everything is the way we want, God has ways of...

— God? Hasn't it sunk in yet, Dad? There is no such thing as what you call God, billions of people died, people suffered, my grandparents fell before the whole world as traitors to the New Order.

David was silent while his son spoke, he remembered well those dark images, Willian pulling the trigger and killing all his family, but in an unexpected sudden, he remembered the conversation he had with his father and started to smile.

— Do you hear me, father?

— Of course, son... but... don't blame God, don't blame me and don't blame yourself for what happened, I know you don't agree, but this is what happened, and if we're here, together, it's because somehow we want to. That, I really believe in God, at least today I do, it sounds crazy, but I had the same conversation with my father.

— And what did he say?

— I didn't say much.

— But he was a pastor, he should have known how to convince someone of the existence of a God he preached.

— Today I understand perfectly what he wanted to do.

David looked up to the sky, satisfied that he finally understood his father's position.

— What do you mean, father?

— God told Moses to say to his people — I am what I am — when they asked about God, He doesn't need to explain himself to anyone, nor convince that he exists, simply because he is what he is and period, it's up to each of you. whether we believe it or not, if we don't want to believe it's not his problem, it's ours, he won't stop being God because of that, we human beings can't say the same anymore.

— Sorry, Dad, but I really don't understand that kind of philosophy.

— Sometimes it takes time to understand the greatness of God, many people spend their whole lives without knowing Him, which I find sad not to have a perspective of something beyond, simply being born, living and dying without there being something beyond that.

— If he cared, he would change that.

— To love is to respect the will of the other, son, your grandparents never condemned me for not choosing to stay in the church with them, simply because they loved me and did everything to make me a decent and honorable human being, so from that I came to understand that God had a way for me and I had my own experiences, making me a Son of His, not a grandson, because my father was also a son of God, but now it's time for you to have your own experiences, if you will. believe or accept, there is nothing I can do.

— I expected more from you, you know?

— We all expect more from our parents, until we reach adulthood and realize how foolish we've been all along for not understanding our parents' love.