Small Gods

Vorbis was staring at him so intently that it was as if he was reading Brutha’s thoughts off the back of his head.
    “And now, please leave,” said Vorbis. “Rest as much as you can…my son.”

    Brutha walked slowly across the Place, deep in unaccustomed thought.
    “Afternoon, Your Reverence.”
    “You know already?”
    Cut-Me-Own-Hand-Off Dhblah beamed over the top of his lukewarm ice-cold sherbet stand.
    “Heard it on the grapevine,” he said. “Here, have a slab of Klatchian Delight. Free. Onna stick.”
    The Place was more crowded than usual. Even Dhblah’s hot cakes were selling like hot cakes.
    “Busy today,” said Brutha, hardly thinking about it.
    “Time of the Prophet, see,” said Dhblah, “when the Great God is manifest in the world. And if you think it’s busy now, you won’t be able to swing a goat here in a few days’ time.”
    “What happens then?”
    “You all right? You look a bit peaky.”
    “What happens then?”
    “The Laws. You know. The Book of Vorbis? I suppose—” Dhblah leaned toward Brutha—you wouldn’t have a hint, would you? I suppose the Great God didn’t happen to say anything of benefit to the convenience food industry?”
    “I don’t know. I think he’d like people to grow more lettuce.”
    “Really?”
    “It’s only a guess.”
    Dhblah grinned evilly. “Ah, yes, but it’s your guess. A nod’s as good as a poke with a sharp stick to a deaf camel, as they say. I know where I can get my hands on a few acres of well-irrigated land, funnily enough. Perhaps I ought to buy now, ahead of the crowd?”
    “Can’t see any harm in it, Mr. Dhblah.”
    Dhblah sidled closer. This was not hard. Dhblah sidled everywhere. Crabs thought he walked sideways.
    “Funny thing,” he said. “I mean…Vorbis?”
    “Funny?” said Brutha.
    “Makes you think. Even Ossory must have been a man who walked around, just like you and me. Got wax in his ears, just like ordinary people. Funny thing.”
    “What is?”
    “The whole thing.”
    Dhblah gave Brutha another conspiratorial grin and then sold a footsore pilgrim a bowl of hummus that he would come to regret.
    Brutha wandered down to his dormitory. It was empty at this time of day, hanging around dormitories being discouraged in case the presence of the rock-hard mattresses engendered thoughts of sin. His few possessions were gone from the shelf by his bunk. Probably he had a room of his own somewhere, although no one had told him.
    Brutha felt totally lost.
    He lay down on the bunk, just in case, and offered up a prayer to Om. There was no reply. There had been no reply for almost all of his life, and that hadn’t been too bad, because he’d never expected one. And before, there’d always been the comfort that perhaps Om was listening and simply not deigning to say anything.
    Now, there was nothing to hear.
    He might as well be talking to himself, and listening to himself.
    Like Vorbis.
    That thought wouldn’t go away. Mind like a steel ball, Om had said. Nothing got in or out. So all Vorbis could hear were the distant echoes of his own soul. And out of the distant echoes he would forge a Book of Vorbis, and Brutha suspected he knew what the commandments would be. There would be talk of holy wars and blood and crusades and blood and piety and blood.
    Brutha got up, feeling like a fool. But the thoughts wouldn’t go away.
    He was a bishop, but he didn’t know what bishops did. He’d only seen them in the distance, drifting along like earthbound clouds. There was only one thing he felt he knew how to do.
    Some spotty boy was hoeing the vegetable garden. He looked at Brutha in amazement when he took the hoe, and was stupid enough to try to hang on to it for a moment.
    “I am a bishop , you know,” said Brutha. “Anyway, you aren’t doing it right. Go and do something else.”
    Brutha jabbed viciously at the weeds around the seedlings. Only away a few weeks and already there was a haze of green on the soil.
    You’re a bishop. For being good. And here’s the iron turtle. In case you’re bad. Because…
    …there were two people in the desert, and Om spoke to one of them.
    It had never occurred to Brutha like that before.
    Om had spoken to him. Admittedly, he hadn’t said the things that the Great Prophets said he said. Perhaps he’d never said things like that…
    He worked his way along to the end of the row. Then he tidied up the bean vines.
    Lu-Tze watched Brutha carefully from his little shed by the