the 21st possibility

for previous story, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

the battle seemed to be going badly, but the prophet remained calm. general arkwright sat beside the prophet as they watched the red dots on the screen, representing the coalition’s forces, encircle the white dots, representing the prophet’s forces. “i think,” general arkwright said, “that a counteroffensive on the left might be in order.” he spoke evenly, as the prophet disliked both obsequiousness and familiarity. the general did not address the prophet either by his name, which was joe, or any title, such as “your holiness” to even “sir” as the prophet did not care to be addressed by any name, as he professed to not believe in names. “do as you think best,” the prophet replied. “thank you.” the general pressed a button in his receiver to indicate that he was activating the counteroffensive, although the counteroffensive had, in fact, already begun as soon as he had spoken the suggestion aloud to the prophet the prophet had a way, well known to all who came into contact with him, of completing a thought or a sentence after a lapse of time. now he said to the general, “after all, it is just a lot of dots on a screen.” “true,” the general agreed. “our victory is assured,” the prophet continued, “not by the dots on the screen even though we are but dots on a screen ourselves, but by the disunity of our opponents, who do not possess the truth.” and before the general could reply, the prophet arose and retired to his sanctum. * another disagreement had arisen in the allied headquarters. this time it was not among the leaders themselves of the various factions - the christians, muslims, marxists, darwinists, etc who had united to defeat the multitudes who had flocked to the banner of the prophet joe smith and his new religion of whatitisism - but among the generals and admirals of the supposedly allied forces who could not agree on whether to make a final concerted offensive or to continue rolling the prophet’s forces back into an ever tightening circle. even the army and the navy could not agree. general jackson of the christians and admiral cook of the darwinists were arrayed against general khan of the muslims and admiral cho of the marxists, and the pleas of mr butler of the lamarckists and professor walters of the pantheists to put aside their differences were proving fruitless… tensions simmered and tempers boiled in a thousand little incidents in the allied headquarters… * the prophet lay down for his afternoon nap, more confident than ever of victory… and young joe smith was back in his home town of thomasville, walking down main street to spruce street and across the green lawn to the white door of the little house… “is that you, joey?” he heard as soon as he opened the door. “it’s me, ma, who else would it be?” “i got another call from school today.” because whatever it is, it is. next