The God Experiment

Chapter No.5. Contact.

Chapter No.5. Contact.

A few days later, Robert and Janet went to the mall to shop for new clothes. She had disposed of most of his clothing over the ten year wait, assuming that he would never wear them again.

The mall had the usual Saturday crowd of shoppers, mostly women with their children in tow or older couples out for a stroll.

Robert caught sight of a teen girl sitting in a wheelchair not looking up at anything. He could sense that she was severely autistic. He went over to her and placed his hand on her forehead. Her parents were sitting on a bench nearby. Her father caught sight of what was happening and went over and shoved Robert.

"Get away from her! What the hell do you think you're doing!"

Robert looked back at him for a moment before walking away and joining his wife.

The girl's father was still ranting when his daughter, now standing, looked at him. "Why did you shove that man, father? He made my mind open up."

Both Devin and his wife stood staring in awe at their daughter.

"Oh my God!" Phillis, his wife, exclaimed. "He cured her!" She went to her daughter and hugged her, rubbing her face with tears streaming down hers.

"Oh, shit!" Devin said looking around. "And I shoved him. I had better go find him and apologize."

Robert and Janet were still walking away. She turned to him with a scolding expression. "You shouldn't have done that without telling them what you were going to do."

"They would not have permitted it. No one would believe that I could completely cure a seriously autistic individual. I had to completely remove all of the damaged neurons and replace them while connecting them correctly."

"And it only took you a few minutes to do all of that?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."

She shook her head. "This is beyond my comprehension."

Devin caught up to them. "I'm really sorry about what I . . . "

"No need to apologize. I would have done the same under the circumstances," Robert replied.

"May we talk?" Devin asked.

Robert looked over at a bench in the center of the mall. "Okay with me."

Robert and Janet sat down on the bench with Devin sitting in a chair opposite them.

"Obviously, you are not what you seem to be," Devin said to Robert. "Maria was a high spectrum autistic. She was totally unresponsive. There's no way that you could have cured her in just a few minutes . . . unless you're an angel."

Robert smiled briefly. "Nope. I'm just a guy who woke up from a coma after ten years in which I had an encounter with someone who told me that I would be given powers to defend against an evil person who is trying to instigate an Armageddon."

"Was he Jesus?"

"I don't know. He didn't identify himself. He also didn't tell me who the evil person was or how I was going to stop him."

"Some would say that what you experienced was a theophany."

"I didn't think it was a dream at the time, but it could have been that. In order to be a theophany it would have had to have been God."

Devin leaned back in the chair and sighed. "If what you are telling me is true, it's possible that this evil person is among us."

"I doubt he's going to give me his business card," Robert quipped.