Haldeman, Joe - Accidental Time Machine by Haldeman Joe

Author:Haldeman, Joe
Language: eng
Format: epub

There were two church pews with cushions for kneeling. Father Hogarty was the only one there, kneeling in quiet prayer. When Matt and Martha came in, he unfolded painfully and offered Matt his hand.

“This will be a wondrous time for you, my son. I envy you. The first is always the best.”

“You talk with Jesus often, Father?”

“Only when he needs to tell me something. Perhaps once every two years.”

“So how—”

“Please, please, take my place. He’ll only come to you alone. We’ll wait outside.” With Martha’s help, he pulled closed a door that must have been eight inches of solid oak.

Matt knelt where Hogarty had been and self-consciously put his hands together in an attitude of prayer, not sure what to expect. Belatedly, it occurred to him to be afraid.

Jesus cleared his throat. “Welcome to my house, Matthew. ”

He looked just like the pictures, which was no surprise. Handsome, thirtyish white guy with shoulder-length hair and a short beard, both neatly trimmed. White robe with a belt of rough rope. It made Matt think uncomfortably of Giordano Bruno.

“I’ve been expecting you,” the image said. It was definitely a holographic projection. “Ever since I saw you appear up in New Hampshire.”

“You were expecting me?”

“I see everything. But yes, you appeared less than two meters from where you were expected, and within about nine seconds of when.”

“So you knew I was coming. But nobody here did?”

He smiled. “I’m God, Matthew, or at least one aspect of Him. That you don’t believe in Him doesn’t alter the reality of His existence. Nor of His omniscience.”

“If you’re omniscient, tell me what I’m going to do next.”

“You have free will. But I suspect you’re going to throw something at me, which will pass through, exposing me as a hologram.”

Matthew loosened his grip on the piece of chalk he had taken out of his pocket, ready to throw. “You claim not to be a hologram?”

“I don’t make any claims.” Jesus picked up a paper clip and tossed it at Matthew. It bounced off his chest. “Maybe you need to see me as a hologram. I’m all things to all men.”

Matthew’s brain was spinning with trying to explain the paper clip. “Could you walk out into the sunlight?

That’s what I really need to see.”

There was a sudden sharp pain in his chest, and he couldn’t breathe. He tried to rise, but some force held him down.

“Don’t be petty, Matthew. God doesn’t do your bidding, and He certainly doesn’t serve unbelief.”

“Okay,” he croaked. “Let . . . me . . . breathe?”

“Gladly.” Air seeped back into his lungs.

Nothing supernatural. A pressor field that thumped him over the heart, then squeezed his chest. Same thing that tossed the paper clip.

It could kill him faster than being burned at the stake. “Thank you . . . Jesus.”

“You do believe in me, then?”

“Of course I do. This world belongs to you.” With his breath, he was getting back his equilibrium. “But I’m curious . . . what happened between my time and yours, here? I can’t find an actual history.

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