It was open-mic night at a little dump off Western Av. Anybody who wasn’t falling down drunk could get up on stage and do a few minutes. If he thought he was funny.
There were maybe 20 people sitting at the small tables. They weren’t exactly connoisseurs of comedy.
A man in his 30s wearing a suit and tie flashed a bright smile and took the mic off the stand. He held an open notebook. He began reading:
‘I’m thinking of changing my program. Repellent humans have become so proficient at taking life, and so dedicated to it, I’m annoyed. I see my job as something dignified; they see death as ordinary, dumb, and they see killing as a way of gaining attention.’
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‘The QUALITY has gone out of it. A man attacks an old lady in a wheelchair. What am I supposed to make of that? Should I restore the old lady to life as, say, a young girl? Should I hack down her attacker and send him to the Underworld of foul rivers and swamps?’
‘I can do things that would surprise you. I can rearrange space and time. For example, if I were really irritated, I could turn back the clock in a region and cancel a war that already occurred. These extraordinary skills are included in my package of tricks, as an afterthought. Just in case. For special crises. But I can access and apply them for “off-label” purposes whenever it suits me.’
‘Suppose I placed a crucial thought inside the skull of the Pope, and the next day he declared a new Inquisition, aimed at corrupt prosecutors who let violent maniacs walk on no bail?’
‘You might ask, “What does this have to do with me?” You just want to stay away from death altogether. You want other forces to handle that. The war in the Ukraine doesn’t really interest you. I could pique your interest. I could insert real-time footage of people in that war dying right in front of your eyes on television. I could show you, live, a thug beating a storeowner to death with a baseball bat.’
‘I’ve died many times. Experiencing it was a perquisite for my job. I’m used to war, of course.’
‘I can’t tell you what you must do. My overall mission orders don’t permit it. But you do have the means to make an impact. People are addicted to screens. They must have them. Laptops, cell phones, tablets. There are many platforms. Why do I have to show you what death looks like? Why can’t you show yourselves and others? Yes, it will take some ingenuity. You’ll be censored at every turn by authorities who claim that DEATH, LIVE, IN REAL TIME, is a terrible thing to watch, violating every standard—while those same authorities PERPETUATE death and killing.’
‘What would have happened, if people had the technological means to show, LIVE, the murderous hordes of Attila in action? Show it to people all over the world. THERE IT IS. Humans—below animals on the food chain.’
‘Well, you do have the means now.’
‘Don’t shrink away from what I’m saying. Don’t reject it. And for God sakes, don’t pretend you don’t understand. I know you do. Everyone understands death. At least the fact of it.’
‘Imagine a trial in which the defendant is charged with having shown death, LIVE, on a screen. He addresses the jury. “I revealed What Is. I took pictures of something that happens every day. You’re asked to send me to jail, while the murderer I put on your screen walks free?” People would watch that trial.’
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‘I’m the Angel of Death because I can handle it. Any death, anywhere. Those are my credentials. That’s how I won the job.’
‘Now I’m asking for your help. Yes, I could intercede in startling ways, but then this thing you call civilization might collapse from the shock of experiencing my tricks.’
‘Better it should come from you.’
No one in the club laughed.
The man walked between the tables and out the door.
He stood on the sidewalk and looked around.
A limousine pulled up to the curb. He climbed in the back seat next to a woman.
“How did it go?” she said.
“It was a start,” he said.
