Distraxiom

[This is part of an ongoing tandem writing experiment. To read the full story, click here.]


Verse 5

Before Jehovah made the universe, he made the angels; and he was without a favorite. For he could not even see them. Then came the idea for light and from that came the idea for the Universe, which he set about the task of creating.

Only he wasn’t very good at it. He would get mixed up and over enthused and not concentrate. First came the idea for light, then the idea for the heavens and the earth, but he built them backwards, and were it not for Lucifer, he would have entirely forgot the angels.

It became obvious to Jehovah that revisions would need to be made, bumps smoothed, after the heavens and after the light. for who can create perfection with the lights off, who can make a magnum opus in the dark?

It should have been a three day job, four tops. Jehovah was well on his way to making it a twelve. That’s when Lucifer came along.

“May I take a look at that?” Lucifer said as he stepped into the light for the first time, his white robe, fair skin and blonde hair sparkling under what was truly a masterful idea.

“Um, I guess,” Jehovah said with a reluctant look on his face.

Lucifer took a long look before saying anything, hand rubbing chin.

“I like what you’ve done here,” another long pause, “It shows a lot of promise”

“But?” God asked with an eyebrow raised high.

“Oh, nothing at all. It’s your universe.”

“Well, what would you do?”

“Um, well, and again, it’s your universe, but I would start thinking about the source of tension that is going to keep your universe interesting.”

“What?”

“Oh, yeah. A source of tension to keep us all guessing would be an ace of an idea. A little variety.”

“Hmm. I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Well, and maybe its not the right thing. Good luck!” Lucifer deliberately turned back toward the dark, slowly.

“Wait. Robert, it is Robert right?”

“No, my Lord, its Lucifer”

“Lucifer?”

“Yes my Lord?”

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Nothing major planned, just going to celebrate another day of existence with the other angels, back in the dark”

“Would you like to come back here tomorrow, maybe watch me create the universe, give an opinion here or there?”

“I’d like that. That’d be cool.”

As Lucifer reached the corner of the darkness, he noticed something. A multicolored collection of pieces of raw and pure light and creation rolled into a ball. Pieces of the imperfections discovered when Jehovah flipped the switch, now discarded and sitting inconveniently on the floor of all possibility.

“Jehovah?”

“Yes?”

“Would you like me to take care of this for you, get it out of your way?”

Nobody had ever offered to do Jehovah a favor before and at that moment, something happened in Jehovah, something neither he, nor Lucifer, nor the creator of creators if there is such a thing, will ever fully understand. But at that moment, all three would have guessed he felt gratitude and affection and…

“Yes, my love, I would appreciate that very much.”

For the remainder of the week, they worked on the universe. God had a powerful ability to create, Lucifer had discovered. Ideas such as Light (Why had the other angels still not wandered into it? it was obvious, a bolt of such contrast off in the distance. It was bliss to experience), Day, Firmament, Heaven, Vegetation, Seed, Waters. Lucifer would never understand where it all came from. Jehovah created a raw matter, but had trouble knowing what to do with it, how to make it do anything. This was Lucifer’s territory. Where Jehovah created the Sun, a powerful and original idea, Lucifer could only manage a Moon; new but ultimately similar. And yet, still important. It was also Lucifer’s idea to separate things. The Day and Night, the Land and Waters. It made their strengths obvious and ultimately complimented Jehovah. Jehovah again had that mystery feeling.

On Sunday, they sat on the Green Fields and drank Ambrosia. One would ask the other what they were thinking and the conversation would last an eon. Then it would switch.

They discovered each other, and discovered what they were both good at and what they could do together. Eventually the other angels had a saying. “God made the Universe, Lucifer made it better.”

They were a team, God providing the ideas, Lucifer making them work toward something, adding a moral. God made Job, Lucifer made him suffer. God made Adam and Eve, Lucifer gave them desire. Shortly after Jehovah introduced Jesus, Lucifer came up with the idea of bringing in the cRoss.

And so they went on writing together. Bouncing off of each other’s ideas. Playing good cop, bad cop. Jehovah even changed Lucifer’s shape to that of a hideous beast for the sake of the story, Lucifer’s idea.

But one of the mysteries of Jehovah’s mystery feeling, was when it would end.

Jehovah, creator of creators (if there is such a thing) bless him, couldn’t stay interested in anything forever. Lucifer never knew how many worlds lay collecting dust before him, and how many books remained unfinished after. He was a momentary pleasure, cast aside when the new big idea came. Jehovah stopped saying “I love you” to Lucifer after that. Then he stopped talking to him altogether. He even forgot to change him back to his former image.

Lucifer’s universe (For who else would lay claim to it now?) was able to run on autopilot for a while, and it did. But the gears of metaphysics were beginning to break, no new souls were being made to replace the old ones. The Universe was decaying. Creation’s natural half-life now returning reality back into its at rest state of possibility. It had lasted longer than Lucifer had really wished for a long time. But years of solitude from anyone like himself (Where had all the other angels gone?) had taught him to lean on no one but himself.

And now he had the chance to become a creator, a god, an equal to his now true nemesis, the one who taught him false love, but honest hate. Jehovah never had the power to destroy, he left that to Lucifer, but now, Lucifer might have both, and that would make him the greater.

Good thing he kept that ball of pure daylight and creation. That ball he called the Daylighter.