SUNSET  ~  (2nd & Last)

by Richard Banks

From now on the Luminary would be the conduit of a knowing sun that informed every word and deed, and Bennie, the vessel through which all solar revelation would be received.

         That Bennie had no say in this became unimportant to the point of irrelevance when he learned the going rate for his priestly duties. Not only did he have money to burn but he was installed in a magnificent temple built in the shape of an Apollo rocket where he lived in a penthouse suite with twelve priestesses recruited from the Lucky Dollar Dance Hall. Defining their own remit as all day sunbathing and the partaking of communion wine Bennie found them not unappealing but a puzzling addition to an already puzzling situation.

         His mounting concern that Big Jack would soon be wanting his first solar revelation was fortunately shared by Marlene, one of the Priestesses, who declaring herself possessed of psychic powers made Bennie an offer that was the only one on the table. In return for promotion to Chief Priestess and a commensurate increase in salary she would provide Bennie with at least two revelations a month and organise the temple rituals that she confidently asserted would soon be the best show in town. When it came to a hustle there was, she said, no one better than herself and if Bennie was agreeable to her proposition she would allow him to anoint her all over with Malibu 50.

         The deal done and the ceremony completed in just under a day Marlene set to work with a reforming zeal that surprised everyone but herself. Having once provided the eye candy for a conjuror of honeyed words and sleight of hand she adapted the same formula to the daily rituals of the temple that soon acquired a large and mainly male congregation. The lightly attired priestesses pranced expressively to the amplified anthems of a Ziggy Stardust tribute band and Bennie followed on with the sermons and revelations that Marlene had written. As the music reached a frenzied crescendo and heady scents rushed out of the air conditioning system the cosmic spirits announced their presence in the brightest and most colourful light show that had ever been seen by people still possessing the power of sight. Dazzled, deafened, and befuddled by the fortified properties of the communion wine the congregation found that in the subsequent laying-on of hands by the Priestesses their persons were less laid-on than their wallets.

         Although Big Jack never attended temple services he was well aware of what was going on. As far as he was concerned the Priestesses could do what they liked, they usually did and could be relied on not to push things too far, all that mattered to him were the solar revelations that he confidently expected would soon be flowing through Bennie.

         On receipt of the first, ‘that the Sun loved the Universe, especially all the Earthlings,’ Big Jack was pleased, if not surprised, that this was so, but after several more greetings of good intent plus a homily that ‘wealth was a burden best left in church’ he became increasingly impatient for the great truths that would reveal the secrets of the universe and the intangible powers that shaped and guided it.

         It was a tall order that had Marlene desperately searching for answers on the science shelves of the local library. Finding that the books they held raised more questions than answers she returned to the temple where her streetwise instincts told her that a problem delayed was the next best thing to a problem solved. If Big Jack wanted a big revelation that’s what he would get, on a pillar of stone full of strange writing that would take Bennie at least a month to decipher.

         The pillar acquired, and suitably inscribed, it suddenly appeared mid-service in the arms of Bennie who, moments before, had been enveloped in a fiery cloud that reminded some on-lookers of a maritime distress flare.

         While Big Jack’s joy at this momentous event was only too evident his usual impatience soon got the better of him and he demanded a full transcript in two weeks. If Bennie couldn’t do it there were folks in the university who could said he, adding ominously that if this deadline was not reached then, “heads would roll.” Uncertain as to whether this was a colourful figure of speech or a serious threat Bennie and Marlene gave urgent consideration to what Big Jack might want the pillar to say. Deep thought was required and although neither of them was fully up to this challenge they were agreed that their translation must be particularly appealing to him. He would, they decided, become the ruler of the world, a world transformed by the arrival of the Solar Host who would light up Earth with their divine light and banish every harsh thought and deed. Even better, Big Jack would be transfigured into a Solar Being and ride through the skies of his domain in a golden chariot drawn by four snow white stallions.

         Informed of this on deadline day his initial enthusiasm soon gave way to a series of questions that required the clarification of further revelations. When was all this going to happen? he asked. Riding about in the sky seemed all very grand but what was to become of his business empire while he was ruling the world. And what about the rules? What were they to be? Should he start writing them now or would they be in the small print of future revelations. If he was going to be ready he needed the answers now, not the day before it happened.

         Reasoning that each question answered would give rise to half a dozen more, the next revelation received by Bennie attempted to reassure Big Jack by saying that all would be revealed in time and that nothing needed to be done until then. The message, received through the ether rather than on a pillar, was a severe disappointment to Big Jack who immediately demanded a meeting to sort things out. On being told that the Chief Spirit was far too busy to make the long journey to Earth, Big Jack taking inspiration from something he had once heard about mountains and Mohammed decided to force the issue by making an unannounced visit to the celestial world. While Bennie's first impulse was to say ‘are you nuts’ he wisely refrained from doing so; nevertheless the thought remained in his mind and, reinforced by Big Jack’s conviction that the trip would only take a week, the correlation between nuts and Jack coalesced into a definite fact.

         At two am the following morning a loud knock on the metal door of the temple announced the arrival of Big Jack with a great deal of luggage and a man called Buzz who, he said, was going to be their driver. The temple had been built in the shape of a rocket for the very good reason that it was a rocket, and as the weather was fine and showing a starry sky there was no better time than now to be starting off. And so it was, as they say, that Big Jack, Bennie, Marlene and twelve others were blasted into space never to return.

         But in a world of alternative truths the one most agreeable to Bennie and Marlene is that it never happened, at least not to them, and that in their truth they took refuge in the cabinet once used by Marlene’s conjuror to make people disappear. That they reappeared during a show he was doing in Las Vegas was not only a great surprise to the conjuror, and the cause of the best reviews he ever received, but a helping hand that enabled them to board separate planes at the airport. Having escaped with all the hundred dollar bills he could stuff into a holdall Bennie wisely decided that a quiet life on the road was most likely to keep him out of further trouble.

                                          *****

         So, the story over, we now return to the beginning with Bennie peering out the window of his new camper van at a rainy sky over Glen Coe. Here he will remain until the next clear sky day when a sunset can be seen, photographed and posted onto his website that contains no reference to himself. Nowadays he also attends to his growing array of upward pointing devices that sometimes capture a familiar voice commenting with decreasing lucidity on the many wonders of inner space. The voice sounds happy and so is Bennie. In his sunset years, there are many sunsets still to come.

 

The End.

 

Copyright Richard Banks