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THE LITERARY JOURNEY BEGINS!!! OUR FIRST CONTESTANT!
Feb
Literati!
Our first entry has arrived in the beautiful country of Thailand!!! Please enjoy our first story! Don’t forget that the contest deadline has been extended to MARCH 4TH, 2017 AT 11:59PM PACIFIC TIME! Without further ado, please enjoy:
The Healing
By Martin A. David
The final fissure appeared between the island of Ko Samet and the coastline of Thailand. The sea had long since receded in that area and the island stood like a shy pimple on a shell and skeleton-littered ocean floor. The earth fracture glowed like all the others—perhaps a little more defiantly since it was the last one.
By now the Tikkun Olam squad—named after the Finnish-Albanian scientist-mystic who had first solved the enigma of the gaping sores that were killing Mother Gaia—had been formed. The first fissure, a hissing, stinking, cancerous canyon, had shown itself off the Atlantic shore of the United States, just miles from that country’s capital. Olam had used a combination of science and intuition to learn the nature of the yawning wound. An intermingling of spiritual research and practice allowed him to predict the appearance and potential consequences of the six more yet to come. If left unchecked these rifts, by his calibrations, would destroy the planet. Olam had contacted the American government when the first crack gave warning of even greater dangers to come and outlined a plan to prevent the cataclysm. However, the leaders, having suppressed and demeaned science in order to put full support behind the state religion, proclaimed the fissure event a sign from above that it was time to reap great riches by exploiting sub-surface resources. The massive expedition they sent to the opening to accomplish that task was swallowed—eaten, as it were—by that angry mouth.
By the time the next fissure emerged—exactly when and where Olam had predicted—he had developed a protocol made up of ritual, interactive ceremony, and applied geology, geolosophy is what he named his system, to ease and mend the frightening phenomena. It took less than three days to remove the danger and restore the integrity of the injured expanse of earth.
Within days Tikkun Olam’s name was on lips around the entire globe. Politicians wondered about achievable advantages to be gained from his process, entrepreneurs dreamed of promising patents, scientists mumbled the name with grudging admiration, and frightened people added it to their litanies, chants, incantations, and supplications. After his similar success in securing incidents number two and three, Olam was invited back to Washington, D.C. to conquer the first abyss.
The other occurrences, each one presenting its own unique set of challenges, were vanquished by Tikkun Olam and his audacious team. Now the ultimate confrontation was in view. Tikkun Olam was ready and so was his crew. Olam walked the streets of Bangkok. The air in front of his face was grey from the bad breath of thousands of poorly repaired cars, deceasing trucks, and tens of thousands of noisy, motorcycles and motorized rickshaws. The Wat Pho Temple, with its gigantic, golden reclining Buddha, appeared as a ghost ship through the haze. Olam had been invited there to meet with King Pho Khun Sri Indraditya the Fifth.
The Thailand incident had drawn the focus of the whole world’s population. Solve this one, and the danger was over. Fail now and….Olam didn’t want to think of it.
The king, standing alone beside the gilded Buddha, wore the saffron-dyed robe of a simple monk. He was formal and dignified in demeanor, but his face radiated a friendly warmth. He bowed slightly to Olam and gave the common greeting of sawadhi khapp.
“I give you blessings,” he said. “I want to go with you.”
Olam had heard that request from leaders around the world and always acquiesced. He bowed in return.
“It would be both and honor and a good omen to have your majesty’s presence,” he said.
And thus the final venture began. The day arrived and the sun seemed as hot and merciless as the mile high eruptions of raw fire that the earth spit forth. The procedure, ridiculed by some, participated in by others, but ignored by none, required a team of eighteen thousand women and men. The King of Siam—the country now called Thailand—was among them. Each of them cast exactly eighteen pieces of bread into the cavernous earth lesion and then helped maneuver the machinery that poured tons of epoxy based cement blended with incense and carefully chosen crystals into the flame-filled opening. The roaring cheers of a horde of onlookers were drowned out by the howling and groaning that issued forth from that unholy hole. The determined multitude had braved this kind of hazard before. They fanned out along the rim of the fissure and began their work. The ground around them shuddered slightly and the demonic sounds diminished until all that was heard was a mournful sobbing.
Not with a bang, but with a whimper…and it all was done. The seventh and last threat was defeated. It was time to rest. It was time to go home.
But at least there was a home to go to.
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Don’t forget to let Martin know what you think of his story and share!!!
This was beautifully written with vivid mental pictures created for the reader. Well done.
Indeed it is! Thank you for your kind thoughts!
Thank you, Michael. It is a joy to get an analytical comment from a fellow writer.
Thanks Mary.
An interesting step into the fray. As fiction this is wonderful, but I can read it as non-fiction as well. The front is heavy with back history, but when I look at it as a whole, I suppose it is necessary. Would have liked to have been exposed to the MC’s more personal makeup as I have always been intrigued with the spiritual scientist. A warning for the future? Perhaps. A great read, absolutely.
A warning of what’s to come or what has already happened?
Thank you, Michael. It is a joy to get an analytical comment from a fellow writer.
I appreciated the history-of-things-to-come approach in this piece. I got a little waylaid by the immensity of Earth’s failure, but it was written to create that affect. So I say well done there. I also appreciated the bang and whimper response to how badly the Earth was screwed up and how easily it was healed, at least in the sense of putting the “Geolosophy” Band-Aid on it.
Thank You
Hey, I could use a Geolosophy band aid.
They call it Scotch.
Stefanie has come up with an engaging contest, and this first entry is proof. well done! Are you
all as excited a siam?
Not only the chief editor but also the master punster………….
Stef is jumping off the cliff. Good for her!
I loved the details of Thailand and the connection in the story to the US, and your own unique blend of science fiction – geolosophy has a new student!
Wow Martin you really got my attention on this one. Love the blending of science fiction and reality – oh wait they can both be the same. Well written and gorgeous visuals from your words. This is one story I would love to see written without the constraints of contest finite. I agree with Michael – would have liked to know more of Olam’s background and where he got his training from. Geolosophy is a great word for energy work!!!! Use of Thailand is a great entrance into the story – ancient energy merging with current energies.