Solutions: The Dilemma of Faith by James Gerard (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📕

The night was anything but silent as Mary walked a furious pace to the hospital.  A voice screaming from within spoke and accused her of horrific crimes.  They screamed out to let her know just how deserving she was of punishment for the selfish deeds.

“No,” she cried as she came close to the hospital’s grounds and saw darkness.  Running full speed it became clear that the light that flooded the entryway had been eliminated.  Stepping onto the head of the path, her steps slowed and then the momentum stopped altogether as something did not appear right.  The eyes peered through the darkness to locate the low illumination of light that should have been emanating from the door’s small window, but it was absent.  She screamed in agony.  The door was gone.

Panic, mixed in with an equal amount of fear, engulfed the mind.  She raced around the corner and sprinted towards the hospital’s main entrance.  There, plainly in sight, sat the director with a contingent of officers standing behind him.

Mary searched the scrambled thoughts running in the mind but already knew there could be no acceptable justification for what she had done.

As she came to a stop the director stood up.  “I have the unfortunate task to tell you that your services are no longer needed Mary.”

“Where are they?  What have you done with them?” she screamed.

The officers raised their rifles and aimed squarely on Mary.

“Mary,” the director said while signaling the officers to lower the weapons, “I will only warn you once: comply with what I am going to tell you or face the consequences.  Do you understand?”

“What are you going to do with them?” she screamed.

“That is no longer your concern.”

The officers ran at Mary but the director shouted out to halt.  They stopped right in front of her.

“Again, listen carefully.  Councilman Neumann, out of mercy, is sparing your life and having you reassigned.  Do you understand?”

“I don’t want to be reassigned.  What have you done with them?”

“No,” shouted the director. “One more word out of you then they have been instructed to arrest and punish you accordingly.”

Mary heard, briefly thought about disregarding the instructions, but knew that the punishment for rebellion would be death.  She lowered her head, stood silently, and listened to the director’s instructions.

“You’re to go back to your apartment and wait for further instructions.  Do you understand?

“Yes.”

“Will you comply?”

“Yes,” Mary mumbled and started to turn and walk away, buy the eyes welled up and tears began to drip down the cheeks.  She turned around.  “Can I ask just one thing?”

“What ?”

“Please tell me what you did with them?”

“It’s already been taken care of Mary.”

Mary turned and walked away.  The stream of tears intensified as images of Valerie and her other friends kept popping in and out of the thoughts.  She knew she would never see them again, but more painstakingly than that, they would never be seen again.  They certainly would be put to death.

All the way home the dark and silent night acted as a cruel companion.  There would be no comfort waiting at home either.  Only misery waited to stroke her once proud heart.  Thoughts of how the end came to past began to simmer in the thoughts.

The damn believer, she thought, he was the cause of this.  She focused on the cross around his neck and how it had seemed familiar.  Now, she reasoned, the familiarity had only been in an intense dislike for their ability to stir up trouble wherever and whenever they emerged from their hidden places.  But the believer was only half the cause of her lowly plight.

She began to question the presence of Councilman Neumann.  From information picked up by eavesdropping, she had learned he was the power controlling the San Diego fiefdom and for years struggled against Councilman Torres for the seat of power to control all the world’s territories.  It was a tormenting thought by which she believed she had been caught up by either’s sadistic scheme to gain such control.  His very presence would have been unauthorized and his comings and goings monitored and scrutinized by every twist and turn of his path to and from the hospital.  A darkness of doom began to fill Mary’s mind with a shroud of helplessness.

Having reached the apartment, Mary plodded up the stairs with trepidation in anticipation to what awaited, then gasped at the top of the stairs.  The apartment door was busted open.  She raced through the door broken off its hinges and slapped at the light switch.   She walked in stunned as the eyes stared at the mattress sitting atop personal belongings that were strewn about.  Furniture had been knocked down to the floor.

Standing with mouth agape, eyes staring at the intentional act of violence, she stepped over the personal belongings lying haphazardly on the floor and fell to the knees once at the desk.   The desk was lying on its side with its drawers pulled out and their contents dumped on the floor.  Eyes scanned the clutter for the frame.  Hands dug through the layers of books and papers and came upon it.  Its shattered glass revealed the ripped black matting.  The only photo of her only child, the only true validation that she truly had once existed, was gone.

A wave of darkness fell upon the scene.  The room mirrored what had become of her life in the past couple of hours.  It was damaged and disheveled and with no sense of order.  Its heart had been yanked out of the chest and the life squeezed out of it.

“Why?” she whispered through the tears.

Reasoning begged an answer, but the reality of the situation spoke volumes.  All the years of going against the tide of rules and regulations had finally eroded away the last remnants of safety and revealed the ugliness of false security that now lay exposed for the world to see.  She collapsed onto the clutter lying on the floor.  The sound of wailing filled the room.  Tears streamed down the cheeks.

 The clock signaled morning, yet the eyes shunned the light of the sunrise.  But staring at the dark face of the ceiling Mary suddenly sensed the weight of reality had lessened during the night.  In fact, she was pleasantly surprised.   A thought of resolve had cleared a path and made a way to reclaim what had been lost.

Mary could only ponder over the reason why they had taken the photo, but whatever it was, she would not allow them to steal the only true image of a little girl she still missed and loved.   It was the only true image that filled the void in the heart with a loving memory.

At any time she figured someone would show up to deliver bad news, but the task at hand beckoned.  The time spent just to wait for such useless instructions only stood in the way.

Mary changed into the only set of clothing that had an official look.  It was a set of clothing never used.  Its purpose was for formal functions to praise and honor the Council, but she had never attended such a display of vanity.  Mary realized the clothes could act enough as a convincible façade to get through the light of day without questions, and possibly through the night without arousing too much suspicion.  Eventually, the disguise would fail and the demands for an identification card that revealed everything about functions and time schedules would be demanded of her.

But the true test would be the road to San Diego.  She was well aware of a vital yet shaky truce between Councilman Torres and Councilman Neumann that allowed the exchange of needed manufactured goods between the two fiefdoms.  The trade was carried out by specialized commercial vehicles fitted with every kind of sensor imaginable to eliminate any devious plans devised by either one of them.   Any private or mass transport vehicles were strictly forbidden in the vast stretch of wasteland lying between the two territories.  Pedestrian traffic was banned. 

She gave thought to making her way to the distribution center at the edge of the southern border and make nice with one of the truckers, but knew she lacked a sultry image in a world where sexual promiscuity was not only encouraged, but expected.   Trust and the cleverness were also lacking to attain such a ride.  Realizing the complex had to have many vigilant eyes, the thought of sneaking into the staging area and onto a truck was too risky.  No matter, she reasoned, a way would be found.

With vigor restored, the eyes took in the bright and sunny morning, however, confusion set in.   Mary could not remember ever seeing the cityscape as bright as it was.  She was used to staring into the sun on the walk home and how its low position in the sky casted long shadows of the building and trees and bushes spread out all around in a familiar pattern.  The shadows acted as markers to the way home.  But the familiarity was gone.  Not only that, she concluded a way to San Diego could only come through information attained at Councilman Torres’ office complex, but how to get there, she had no idea.

Eyes studied the streets busy with maintenance workers manicuring the foliage that lined the curbs.  Official vehicles sped to and from their appointed destinations delivering the needs to those serving the state.  Just then a vehicle caught the attention.   A grand bus, a vehicle reserved only for the Council members and their chosen friends, went lumbering down the street.

Careful not to attract attention to the intensified gazes of men staring out of cruisers meandering in and out of the traffic, she lowered her head as if to examine the grass off to the side but the eyes remained fixed on the road.  The eyes held steady to the path the bus was taking until it disappeared into the horizon. 

With a steady and purposeful gait, Mary made it appear as if official business was being conducted as she marched down the path with chin held up high, back straight, chest puffed out, shoulders pinned back, and eyes with a fixed focus.  After a few minutes she realized the façade had fooled all those around.  They had to see the serious countenance, the confident posture, and the purposeful stride that made everyone move out of the way for an unhindered march down the path.

With the concerns of having charted an unknown course temporarily relieved, the problem would be entering the government complex without the proper identification.  The old one indicated that she neither had the right or the justification to enter, and whatever the new one would have indicated, the same restrictions would have been revealed.  Nevertheless, the complex loomed large in the distance.  Whatever scheme needed to