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
