CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 21
CARLISLE BURKE
CARLISLE BURKE WORKED tirelessly on his new and most important job, he knew in his heart of hearts that he should have talked to his brother first, and not let him waste away like that.
Where I was thinking that I hadn't told him from the start, he must have been aware of what was going on...
Seeing Catherine like that was also affecting him in a way he had never felt, Carlisle knew that sooner or later, William would take revenge on his wife.
Burke would often go to the square where his brother preached, stand from afar and look on and see that his decision had been the right one, but now he wanted to make another fundamental decision, that of telling Catherine that Ivy was not dead.
OSCAR FINALLY FELT FULFILLED with his new routine, and his daughter's own candidacy was drawing attention to his small church, after all, it's not every day that a woman runs for president of the United States of America and wins.
Jennie's dream was to give her parents a better life, but David had already given them everything they needed, plus a pension no one could complain about, and another, both Jennie and David wanted both of them to focus only on their ministry…
Everyone thought it was really amazing and asked Oscar and Esther what was the secret of raising talented children, after all, David had become one of the biggest icons of world music in recent times and Jennie had become a remarkable politician... in addition to being the first female president in the history of the United States of America, and the youngest as well.
The answer was simple:
Love...
Oscar Heringer had never stopped to think about it, his two sons changed the course of many things... especially their lives.
THE WORLD HAD TURNED TO UNIQUE TOTAL CHAOS, suddenly, the middle ages became a bedtime story. Millions of people died all over the world, fathers, mothers, children, friends, relatives, acquaintances... everyone lost someone special.
The media reported non-stop and in real time the misfortunes that insisted on happening to the whole world.
Everyone called it "Black Week", others from "La Plague".
Many countries took advantage of the chaotic situation that the world had gone through and invaded enemy territories, Israel was one of them.
The world has completely collapsed, thousands of planes, cars, trains, natural disasters...
Parents tried to hide their children in basements to protect them and never came back...
Many people preached on the streets about the end of times and newspapers printed on their covers that the Week Black was the biblical Apocalypse, still others, the Third World War. For some, it was an Alien Conspiracy, others, that it was the Rapture of the Church of Christ, as many disappeared without any explanations.
CARLISLE BURKE — like everyone else around the world — was horrified by his creation, now he understood what Santos Dumont felt when he saw his planes being used as a weapon of war, hurting millions of innocent people out of pure political interest.
Burke bitterly regretted his upbringing — felt like Marie Shelley's Victor Frankenstein himself, seeing his monster bring pain and suffering to everyone around him — seeing the whole world collapse, families being ruined... real rubbish for saving his life back then... all because of a stupid crush...
***
LITTLE CARLISLE WILLIAN BURKE was three years old when he learned to read and write. His intelligence already drew significant attention at the age of five, when he helped an old man to solve an equation that was almost impossible to solve, the worst of all is that the equation after being solved you realized how simple it was to solve it.
As much as the boys in his class tried to piss him off with countless tendentious nicknames — toothpick, dental floss, stick — because of his almost skeletal body, Carlisle Burke only knew how to talk about studies.
A comical situation that Burke never liked to remember is a child's game they used to play at school — measuring his penis to see who had the biggest one — when they kept pestering him so much, saying that for the body he had, it should be a straw to drink. soda, when he showed his member generated a new and ridiculous nickname...
Tripod...
BURKE WAS ADOPTED AS A CHILD, no one ever knew what happened to his real parents, but he also didn't care much, his life had become wonderful, even in the four years he was living in an orphanage that operated in the back of a Baptist church, in outskirts of New York. Carlisle Burke thought he had everything he needed in life, notebooks and books, that was his happiness.
OSCAR HERINGER WAS FOUR YEARS OLD when he first met Carlisle Burke at the orphanage behind the church where his father was the pastor, he never understood why his father gave the scrawny genius boy his undivided attention.
Despite finding him awkward at first, Oscar enjoyed befriending him, and shortly afterward, Carlisle was adopted and they hadn't seen each other for fifteen years.
Their childhood was a bit dull, Burke was stuck in his studies and Oscar accompanied his father on evangelistic missions around the world.
CARLISLE SAW CATHERINE BRADERY for the first time when he was sixteen years old, and he was determined to die with that love in silence, since logically, she would never love him.
Everyone knew about Catherine's fame, but Carlisle was completely given over to that passion that killed him every day from the inside like a malignant cancer.
Catherine Bradery was the most frivolous person in high school and everyone knew she went out with every boy who played on the football and basketball team, as well as the best parties in school — one of which was definitely not Carlisle Burke, who was just a mere shadow on Catherine's heel in her incredible world of dreams and fantasies.
Carlisle Burke spent hours writing down his dreams with Catherine, one day he took courage and handed her a copy saying that he had written it after countless dreams he had with her.
Catherine was so used to vain men who only cared about what she would do with their crotch and giving him expensive gifts that the poor thing didn't know she'd ever read all that crap, but Catherine was touched by the scrawny one, she didn't know why. what...
— I also have a gift for you...
Physically, Carlisle looked like a malnourished worm he was so thin-which at first made Catherine laugh at him when she saw him shirtless-but when she saw him without his underwear, she realized he had what none of the other boys in high school had, an eight— inch cock that drove her crazy.
That was the first time Catherine had had an orgasm.
BURKE WAS LYING QUIETLY with Catherine sleeping against his chest when he heard a knock on his door.
It was Oscar Heringer.
— Hello, Carlisle...
— Oscar? It's really you?
Oscar smiled.
— Yes, I am... how long, isn't it? — But... could you come with me? We have something that needs to be clarified...
Carlisle went to the bedroom and explained to Catherine that he would have to leave, he had to solve a problem, but he would be back soon.
Oscar and Carlisle entered the hospital room and Oscar's father was lying there, apparently asleep.
Carlisle wondered how time had passed in those few years, for him almost nothing had changed, but for poor poor Pastor Heringer... an eternity of suffering and pain had passed.
— I'm glad you came… — said John Heringer with an almost Herculean effort.
***
JOHN HERINGER MEET Carlisle's MOTHER at a conference and it was love at first sight for both of them.
At the time, John was in a quarrel with his wife, Marie, who was two months pregnant, and meeting Paola Burke was a sentimental shock for him, one that has left him baffled to this day.
They slept together only once and never found themselves in that situation again.
But that night was enough to change their entire lives...
John had stayed late that day at the church, when he saw his "demon inside"...
She was there...
Standing in front of him like the Phantom of the Opera who had the power to walk in and out of any room at will to see his muse.
She was holding a wicker basket in her arms.
— Forgive me John... — she whispered before falling to the ground.
John immediately went to meet him.
— Paola, for God's sake, tell me what happened.
Paola sought otherworldly strength to tell the truth.
— He's your son, John, he's going to change the course of history, for better or for worse...but the curse that hangs over you could turn into a blessing...
Paola slowly closed her eyes.
John wanted to talk to her, but it was too late, Paola was gone for good.
John hid the truth from everyone until the day he found out he had end — stage cancer, then asked his son to get Carlisle.
***
THE TWO DID NOT KNOW HOW to react to the truth, they were sons of one of the most upright men that had ever lived on the face of the earth, and maybe one of their only sins had turned into a blessing, even after all those years...
They just couldn't understand why their mother said that Carlisle would change the course of history.
Oscar kept this secret all his life, his mother never knew of her husband's betrayal.
Carlisle went about his life as usual.
What he thought would be a one and only time had become habitual, but Carlisle knew he shared his bread with everyone.
CATHERINE REGISTERED the book in her name and published the novel as her own. It won numerous awards and was still considered one of the best debut novels of all time.
WILLIAN JOHNSON IN TURN was not far behind, from an early age he sought to know the secrets of the stock market and the tricks of horse games, and began to make a small fortune.
But it was still little...
William followed Catherine for several days, discovered all her secrets, he didn't understand what the curse was on him for liking that damn whore so much, but marrying a successful writer would give him the fame he needed.
IT TAKEN TWO YEARS for everything to get back to normal, and an approximate count of more than three and a half billion dead and missing — out of the nearly seven billion in the world.
China, India and Africa were the hardest hit, Africa, for example, was almost completely wiped out, except for Egypt, almost all human beings in Africa were killed.
South and Central America suffered a lot from attacks with nuclear bombs, more than seven hundred million human beings died without any explanation, apart from the terrestrial fauna.
Markets and stores were looted, cars were stolen and for a long time people used it as their own, until they managed to re-establish the data systems of all people and their goods again, but until that moment, everything had been consumed.
The prisons were all opened for the few that remained to help rescue the wounded and rebuild the cities, but many of them escaped and disappeared from the state archives, stealing the identities of the dead and starting a new life in the midst of that new world.
The images were shocking, people desperately throwing themselves from the top of buildings, buses on fire with children inside, planes crashing over cities big and small, trains crashing into each other completely out of control... all kinds of atrocities were happening. that week...