Dilemma of Dreams - Cp1

An adult speculative Christian post-armegeddon fiction
Dilemma of Dreams
Chapter One: Complete
Report of My Vision

You might have a hard time imagining how peaceful I thought things were. Food was hard to come by, but nobody tried to steal it from you. Others would check on you to see how much food that you had, because there was no reason not to share. The water in the streams was clean. I did not have to fear for my life, but I guess that I should have.

What exactly happened, I still want to know. This report has the limitation of being mine, and I am without the facts. I however feel that I once understood things.

I reacted that day. I remember so much very clearly. I thought things were going well. I had spent the day looking for gold. I thought of establishing a mine and searching through the rock for gold. After I had dug up enough to be at peace, I would look at my mine and consider how I could make the burrow into a home. I had thus not gone walking looking for a good place to mine for gold, but a good place to call home. When I came back into town, I however knew that things were not correct.

“Sheriff Mesapher! Sheriff Mesapher! We arrested Peralte as you said.”

Officer Nintart came running to me quite pleased with himself. I had given him the assignment that day somehow sensing that Peralte would present himself as a problem. The man took pride in working against the proper ways of the local community. He really did not break laws, but flaunted his deeds that came close to the limits of complete depravity. Most men gaining some temporary wealth would take advantage of one of the unclaimed ladies, but Peralte had claimed all the ladies when success came his way. I arrested the man simply to allow the ladies to return to their lives and possibly allow a few to show their favors to another man. Another time Peralte had built a contraption to take advantage of the flow of the river for power, and I had to arrest him again so those who wanted it removed could do so. He had recently been spotted teaching an animal to do tricks, so when I left this morning I considered it proper to arrest the man again. Officer Nintart thus wanted the satisfaction of gaining the accolades for doing his duty.

“That is most pleasing, Nintart,” I replied. “How much trouble did he give you?”

“None, Sheriff Mesapher. I went and told him that he was being arrested, and he did not even ask me why I was arresting him. He simply told me to lead the way.”

Those words hit me hard. I began running. Somehow I understood that the pleasant life that I had was over. Hoping to manage to keep the life I had, I raced to the jail.

Some people stopped to look at me running with a couple lifting a hand to wave. Antelope then fled from next to the building to race ahead of me. What had been a barrel turned into a piano, and if I had not been running I might have stopped to play it. Flowers with wide petals covered the ground before my feet could land, and I remember being glad at how much more pleasant it made the rush. When I stopped before the jail, now a building of soapstone being excavated by ants, I noticed a cow come to a halt behind me that I somehow recognized as Nintart.

Moving apart the ivy that now acted as the door, I stumbled into a pool of water. Lifting myself up, I saw Peralte lying upon a water lily that I understood rested within the area that had been his jail cell. That troubled me greatly, and I stumbled attempting to quickly move through the water and confront Peralte.

“You couldn’t let things be!” I screamed at him. “I was so happy here!”

“Mesapher, I am not the cause. I am actually the one that was working to keep this world alive.”

Peralte continued to lie on the water lily. I could see how the pliable leaf worked to provide comfort and support. Even though in the place of criminals, he was quite comfortable.

“You kept doing things to upset the order!”

“No. I kept doing things to provide an order. What you had here was a period of stability. Those never last.”

“They could!”

He turned, but not much. I realized that what I saw as a comfortable place of rest had its own instability. If he lifted himself, the leaf would not support him. Only by lying down and spreading out his weight could he remain dry and with some comfort. While I wanted such ease for myself, my attitude would not allow me to hold a relaxed position. I however felt some pleasure seeing that he did have some constraint upon him.

“No, Mesapher. Stability is a long-term view. At the immediate level there are periods of feast and famine. The feasts are great, but the famines are painful with the prospect of death for the common folk. You have to work to obtain any sense of true survivable stability, and you do not work.”

“I will too work. I am the sheriff.”

“Who else was present to claim the position?”

“What?”

I believe it was at that moment that I began to lose my sense of my place in the cosmos. I presently believe that I should have not have needed to ask that question. I know that Peralte looked at me strangely. I thought that maybe Nintart had done something wrong, but the swan pecked at the ants cheerfully eating. I thought of the water needing fish to eat any ants that fell into it, although I remember also being glad at the lack of alligators to eat the fish. Looking back at Peralte, it took me a moment to remember his name.

Accepting that his last statement made no sense, I simply said, “I liked it here.”

“I liked it here as well, Mesapher. I actually wanted this to work. This was not bad at all, but the system would not work without any effort. You did nothing however.”

“I did too! I am Sheriff!”

“And what did you do with the title? You arrested the one person attempting to work so you could stay at your job.”

The walls of the jail turned to crystal with the ants falling into the water as diamonds. Nintart changed into a snake with me being grateful that he did not attack. I felt myself rise from the water as a hyacinth grew beneath me, and to enable it to lift me I collapsed into a lotus position. The crystal of the walls was not clear enough to enable me to see what happened outside, but I kept my focus on Peralte.

“You were attempting to bring technology!”

“I was attempting to bring stability. Just small things that would make life in this reality survivable through the hard times.”

“By making us work in times of ease!”

Peralte now moved to also sit in a lotus position, but his demeanor had none of the tranquility usually associated with those that contort their bodies in such a fashion. I however have to admit that I also did not have a calm serene mind. Some sense of survival drove me, although I felt my hold on my mind and everything around me failing. Peralte continued to however speak words of reason to me.

“I put no requirements upon you, Mesapher. I did not come to you to do anything. You could have had your life.”

I remember feeling the pain of accepting his words as having been true. I discovered Peralte doing the things that I arrested him for. He did not go around town boasting of his deeds. He had not come to me with petitions to get others to help him with his projects. I had simply found him active, and arrested him to force him to stop. Having a sense of bringing about my own doom, I found some words to say in return.

“It should not be this way, Peralte. I built a good system.”

I wish that I knew why I had said that. I had some knowledge that enabled me to say those words that I do not have presently. My instructors have worked with me to open up my mind and connect with whatever past these thoughts come from, but it has not worked. All that I can presently do is accept that such were the words I said, and that I probably had some reason for saying them.

“You did build a pleasant system, Mesapher, but it is obvious that we have different opinions of what a good system is. What you did not build was a system of support for the reality you desired. You however could have been happy here if you would have allowed me to help you, but the time here is finished.”

A section of the crystal wall melted as if ice. I saw a cliff with colorful mushrooms growing upon it. I actually remember thinking that the growth of fungi were lovely, so that type of a world would have been acceptable. The sky swirled with orange and blue color, and that told me that Peralte’s words were correct. I however pleaded for some resolution.

“Why could it not last?”

“Because you stopped my efforts. You did not even discuss the issues with me. You arrested me and told me to stop.”

I did not want to accept the blame, so cried out, “Why did you have to come here?”

“Because a report came of the loss of Cephalus. He was my friend. We were working on separate realities with the plans to eventually unite them and create a hub for a large association. When I gained a point that things in my reality was at peace, I however found Cephalus’ reality had completely collapsed. I rushed to Heaven, and there learned that Cephalus would need time to re-acclimate himself to a less than divine existence. Dimerkess was worried about you, and he sent me to you.”

I would like to know who Dimerkess was, or is. I think that he was my father, but no more than a distant feeling places that association with him. What troubles me is the fact that I cannot connect any relationship between me and Dimerkess in the memories I am now relating. I feel a strong sense of loss in not knowing his identity, although at the time my only sense of discomfort was in the loss of the world around me.

“What is going to happen to us?”

“I have a stable reality. This thus does not bother me. I do not know what is going to happen to you, but I will do everything I can to prevent losing you. What I need from you is to remember that I was trying to help you.”

“You did a horrible job.”

He shrugged his shoulders, then as reality collapsed around me he said, “Maybe, but I did put out the effort.”