Faith

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I cry out
to You,
but
You
do not
answer me.
[Job 30:20]
***********************
"Lord?"

"Yes,
child."

(Stick fork
into bowl of chinese
food chicken and rice.)
(Look up.)
"Am I talking..
to the JEWISH God?"

[CALM NOD.]
[LOOK OUT UPON
THE FROZEN LANDSCAPE
OF THE SUNLESS SIDE
OF VENUS.]
"Yes,
Mein kin'der.
Go on."

"They tell
me,
that You're
JESUS."
(Squint at the ceiling.)
"Are there
QUESTIONS,
I shouldn't be
ASKING YOU?"

"Like what,
My precious."
[SOLEMN GAZE.]
[START ANOTHER
STORM ON THE SUN.]
[LISTEN TO THE
SILENCE ON THE FAR
SIDE OF PLUTO.]

(Pick up another
forkful of chicken.)
"Like....."
(Swallow.)
"What about these
people, who never
get SAVED?"
(Gaze upwards.)
"Like....
they've lived in
another COUNTRY:
where..they're not
allowed to READ
the Christian..
BIBLE?"

[CALM GAZE.]
[NOD.]
"Go on."

"And....Ya know:
they grow up really
ISOLATED?
In some little
VILLAGE?
Or....TOWN,
UP, on....SOME
MOUNTAIN?
Or...,
maybe...
in some little
Jewish GHETTO:
in POLAND,
in 1810?
And...then,
they DIE,
when they're like...
EIGHTEEN?
What THEN?"

[SILENCE.]

"What are Ya
gonna DO:
send them,
to HELL?"

[SILENCE.]

"...Just, cuz
they happened to
be born....
maybe,
BLIND?
Or...
CRIPPLED?
Living in a little
HUT?
Or...by a tash CAN?
Horribly POOR?"
(Stare, beligerently,
up at a corner of
the ceiling.)
"And...their
life is full of
horrible MISERY?
So, THEN WHAT?
You pour
all YOUR
WRATH,
and JUDGMENT,
ON THEM?
And....SPLAT?
That's IT?
They go to HELL?
For all ETERNITY?"

[SILENCE.]

(Stare up.)
(Set aside dish.)
(Fold arms.)
(Lean against kitchen chair.)
"WHAT?
Did I ask
the wrong
QUESTION?"

"Why do you
ask,
My child?"

"I guess...
I was wondering..
about someone,
like..."

[QUIET VOICE.]
"Like
who,
little one?"

(Long pause.)
"Well...
say,
like.."
(Look at a shadowed
corner of the ceiling.)
"Anne Frank."

[SILENCE.]

(Shrug.)
"She was about
FIFTEEN..
wasn't she?
Who was gonna
talk to her,
about JESUS....?
In the concentration CAMP?
(Rueful smile!)
One of the Nazi.. GUARDS?"
(Stare at the ceiling.)
"I just wondered,
that's all."
(Look away.)
(Shrug.)

[SORROWFUL GAZE.]
[SILENCE.]

(Silence.)
(Looking the other way.)
(Whisper.)
"I just don't like,
that side of it."

[QUIET VOICE.]
"What side
of it,
child?"

(Whisper.)
"You."

[NODDING.]
[TENDER VOICE.]
"That is
because,
child;
you don't
know
Me."
**********************
I am
the Alpha
and the Omega,
the Beginning
and the End,
the First
and
the Last.
[Revelation 22:13]

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