Solutions: The Dilemma for the Gods by James Gerard (top 50 books to read .txt) 📕

Terrance started to examine the area more thoroughly but then stopped dead in his track, laughed then shouted, “Oh come out come out wherever you are Guardian of the Gods.”

Not that he expected to encounter some immortal being within the confines of the inner world, but at least he expected to find a mortal one.  The very least someone that could divulge the one secret he did not know about the Gods.  But the place was void of life.

Further inspection of the area led the attention down a long flight of stairs where a gigantic structure hummed a lowly hum.  It felt warm to the touch.  All around the perimeter of the mighty machine there was not one door, not one portal found to open the way for further inspection.  It was not until Terrance reached a small room containing the information regarding the mighty machine that he began to comprehend its strength.  Although he could not understand by what means the machine provided power because the language was riddled with words he could neither understand nor pronounce, the acceptance of its function went unquestioned.

For a few hours that day Terrance roamed about all the rooms, took a second look at all the equipment and tools and parts and liquids. and connected each to either a repair or maintenance manual.  The Gods’ power was revealed as nothing more than that of an assigned child performing a specific task.  But who the Gods were was still unknown.

After Terrance began to toy around with the machines he found himself to be quite adept at repairing and maintaining all that the Gods left undone.  And though he had the hope that the Gods would descend upon the spot where many of the ill machines were repaired, it never occurred.  The identity of the Gods remained a mystery.

Looking out to the distance, past the secret pasture, a tranquility of the landscape seeped into the thoughts of Terrance.  He was not quite sure how the area once appeared, but it did not matter.  The terrain was filled with colorful life that sprang up in the expanse surrounding the secret pasture.

In contrast, the pasture was filled with heaps of the food rejected by the Gods.  All about the piles of waste weeds strangled the idealistic notion of the Gods’ good world.  Mighty predators like the bears and the wolves that frequented the landfill feasted on the meats and fruits from jars that they cleverly opened.  Majestic birds such as the eagles and the hawks feasted on the mice and rats, snakes and lizards, rabbits and gophers that made the parcel of land a home.  Creatures such as the coyotes, buzzards, and raccoons fed off the waste rotting in the heat of the day as well.  For all other animals, reptiles, birds, and insects, the garden became an oasis in the vast open land.

But in the garden tended with love, sowed in close proximity to the Greater Temple, the chaos of life was overcome with order.  The perimeter of Terrance’s garden measured ten thousand square feet.  Rows of apple, orange, pear, and peach trees occupied just a little more than half the space.  Rows of carrot, squash, potatoes, onion, and strawberries occupied most of the rest of the space.  Off in one corner a rose bush, its buds nearly ready to expose the sweet scented red pedals to the springtime season stood both in memory and a symbol for the feeling he had for Rita.

It was not so much the fruits and vegetables that Terrance cared about, it was the rose bush.  As far as he was concerned any one of the animals, birds, or insects had been welcomed to wander out of the wasteland of the Gods’ pasture to feast on the succulent delicacies that grew. He had a large stash of the Gods’ food set aside for his consumption and needed nothing further.  However, the offering did not apply to the rose bush.  That was off limits.  Wire meshing protected the delicate flowers and tender leaves from the small critters that sought to consume it.  A vigilant watch removed any pest that sought to bring it harm.  Yet there were some creatures Terrance welcomed to help tend the bush.  Bees, worms, and ladybugs were given permission to enter as often as they wanted to protect and nurture the vibrant blossoms.

Terrance realized that while the rose bush flourished, Rita would never know that it was all done for her.  Mainly intended as a symbol of love, the red shades that the flowers would bring to the garden, filling it with life, just paled in comparison to the memory of her; the rose bush could not substitute his longing for her.

He had known Rita well enough, her parents and brother as well.  They had grown up together.  There was not a day that went by when the two of them had been absent from one another.  Whether it was in school, in prayer to the Gods, in personal and family celebrations permitted by the Gods, they had spent much of the past together.

During their early years, long before the temptations that came with the age of maturity, they acted like brother and sister.  They would engage in silly little spats but moments later would be acting out their love for one another with kind words and goofy smiles.  As they grew, Terrance began to act more like a big brother defending his little sister from the cruelties of the world.  They would be seen holding hands at family celebrations, sitting close together in prayers to the Gods, and found after wandering off together far away from the personal celebrations permitted by the Gods.

When they both reached the age of maturity, all that knew the two believed that they would be paired as mates.  As prescribed by the tenets, all pairings of a male and a female who had reached the age of maturity would come by the approval of the Gods and administered by the high priests.  The high priests were commanded to follow decisions spelled out by the Gods, and any diversion from the tenets would be met with punishment.  But many of the children had speculated that the high priests took an exception to the two because they had witnessed the natural love for one another.  And while it was let known that the high priests actually were against the pairing because of such, the children cried out that such an act on their part was seen as disobedience.  In the end, they had a change of heart and paired the two.  The children believed the high priests escaped punishment because of the mercy of the Gods; that the Gods had seen their fear and spared them from the consequences of even having thought to override their decision.

When the pairing was announced, however, Terrance already knew that he would rebel and refuse to be paired with Rita.  Although his heart ached fiercely to do so, the decision was made by the high priests according to the tenets of the Gods.  It was not freely his choice, but a choice forced upon him by the Gods he did not believe in.

His parents also did not believe in the Gods.  Although they gave the appearance that they indeed did, just as Terrance had done, they secretly had nothing but contempt for them and their tenets.  His parents fully supported the decision to reject the ritual that would have paired the two together for life.  They were the only ones that could understand the reasoning behind it.

Looking at a spot in the near distance, the hidden place where his parents had been raised in the underground shelter, Terrance had come to know that there were too many unanswered questions about the world the Gods prepared for them.  His parents made it known that they knew some of the truth about the undergorund world, but much of it was a great mystery.  As far as they knew, there was no oral or written accounts of how it came to be or existed from anyone of the children; only the Gods had the answers to that secret.

Before the beginning, as the Gods explained in the sacred texts holding the tenets, they had been away tending to other children when evil entities invaded the good world and wreaked havoc all over.  When the Gods returned and discovered the evil entities and the destruction they had caused to both the children and the world, they ordered all the believers to the underground haven while they went to battle with the evil entities.  The Gods were victorious, as they described in the sacred texts, but commanded the children to remain in the underground fortress until the Gods could clear the way for the children by repairing all that the evil entities had destroyed.  Once the Gods deemed it safe, the signal, the lamp sitting atop the pinnacle of the Greater Temple shined and announced to the children they could emerge from the underground fortress and once again live on the surface of the good world the Gods had provided for them.

Terrance's parents had told him this story as well as through teachings of the high priests after the emergance into the good world, and as far as anyone knew they had accepted it as truth; but in reality they did not.  A mystery remained.  Terrance’s parents knew about a truth not written in the sacred texts.   The mystery involved the lack of knowledge of anything that existed before the children were sent down to the underground fortress.  No one could remember anything before that time.  And although there were official inquiries made to the high priests by many children which led the high priests to inquire directly to the Gods in the Lesser Temple, the only explanation provided by the Gods was that the evil entities had destroyed the memories of the children by such horrendous acts that the Gods themselves could not heal the wounds inflicted on their children.

Suspicion, mixed with some knowledge of the past, pestered Terrance’s parents.  They, in turn, related the facts that they had known once he was old enough to begin to formulate opinions, but at the time the present life was of more interest than a past clouded with mystery.  As he grew, Terrance, besides the physical growth that brought him into maturity, had developed in thought as well. He had achieved the intellectual properties and began to truly comprehend the truth his parents had divulged in the past.

With the mountains at his back, Terrance looked far beyond the secret pasture.  Curiosity reared up thoughts of what lay within the land that stretched all the way to the far horizon.  Also, curiosity also brought into the thoughts of what exactly existed beyond the horizon.  That was more important to Terrence since that is where he believed the old gatekeeper had journeyed.  He could only imagine what was waiting out there to be discovered.  Maybe it would be a thing or two that would contradict