Yet, it was Emmanuel's reason for being. To become the center of the world’s attention and claiming who he claimed to be was fraught with dilemma and consequences considered catastrophic, beguiling and wondrous from…
A. the Diamond Diner which was the epicenter of life and terrible plots to follow;
B. Emmanuel letting it be known, in no uncertain terms, that killing is not a game played on computers in the “War Room” over on Fourth Street;
C. Emmanuel needing attention and misspelling his own name written with clouds in the sky;
D. to walking on the Hilgard River, the final stunt that convinced them all; and
E. bringing the immediate attention of ‘IT’.
And the rest is… the worst parts of the Bible and the beginnings of The Doofus and the Divine II.
So, dear reader, this was the beginning of a heavenly relationship that you have never encountered before. Because this sort of thing hasn't sprung up before. So, with all this said, Emmanuel needed Oliver to buy into what he was preaching… like as of NOW! Because this Son of God was on a learning curve that went straight up. So that's where Emmanuel took Oliver… straight up.
Flying in mid air is one thing. But Oliver giving the body of Christ -- ‘Christ’ as in God's first kid on this planet and as in ‘Catholic holy communion-- to God’s second kid on this rock, who was sitting right in front of him in his family’s backyard barn… was Steven Spielberg times a thousand!
Okay, the communion wafer was Wonder Bread. But so what!
For reasons he could not decipher, mostly because this took too much energy, Oliver discovered he had slept until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. He had never slept that late unless he had the plague, which was usually reserved for school days. But this was the beginning of summer. Endless days of useless activities. He thought about sleeping till dinner. Unknown to Oliver, somebody was standing at the back door of the house and that somebody was reaching for the door knob. At which point every door knob in the house flew off in totally different directions and Oliver was out of bed. Future activities were no longer useless… It had begun.
Emmanuel had waited for 18 years before he came down off the ridge above the town of Placard. His teacher, Agnes, lovingly taught him everything she could and was told by those closest to God to teach him and get him ready to be who he had to be. But without on- the- job training, Emmanuel really had no idea about the foibles and intricacies of humanity. And so… that day arrived, the longest day of the summer. He had come down off the ridge and now stood under the window of his guide to that humanity. Emmanuel took a really deep breath, brought on by a boatload of worry and doubt, and entered the house of Oliver Digby.
Placard is a dying little zit of a town on the boring half of Montana. Total population: 315 men, women, children, unfortunate dogs who sleep on Main Street and lost hopes. It's where drivers actually drive the speed limit. When asked “How are you?” they certainly expect you to stop and listen to their dissertation on the lack of their well-being. They are a pius people who believe God and Jesus sit at their dinner table every night. There's never anything exciting in Placard. All the young people are trying to get out and the old people look at death as the end of boredom. So therefore, it made total sense that absolutely no one expected anything to change. Then… this happened, and all of a sudden, they were the epicenter of the world’s attention.
The heavy guy in the dumpy suit with the bad comb over on the top of his balding head is just standing there in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere on the road to Placard. He has business in Placard. Two thousand years ago he was late to the party. But… not this time.
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