Within the Walls of Hell (4 page)

Stone:
That is a very good question. Yes, I succeeded to a greater extent. I had a large following both at home and in different countries around the world. Thanks to the actions of the military wing of my organization, some of those low-lives got back into their shells and as a direct result, I regained part of my lost market. Because they could not aspire for higher heights, the changing times forced some of them to come back to me for jobs and I trapped them with loans which they couldn't pay back. Anybody who couldn't pay his or her loan was forced to work on my estate until he or she could pay it. I presented the papers of the loans given to them to any government official who came around my estate to see if I was keeping anybody against his or her will. I bought some of government officials outright with money and convinced a good number of them to join my organization. My deficits were quickly covered and my business began booming again. My followers who became heads of state or members of the House of Representatives did a marvelous job. They voted into law my famous principle of separation. There was separate development and separation in the use of public facilities like hospitals and schools. It was abnormal that real people should be using the same facilities as those low lives. In addition, we could do whatever we wanted with those low-lives but if they spoke to us without permission or respect, they were immediately put to death. I think I succeeded largely on that front.

Messenger:
Did you at any time try to fit yourself in the shoes of those you considered enemies?

Stone
: Why was I supposed to do that? Those were people who wanted to put me out of business and you are asking me if I tried to feel for them? I couldn't feel for them. I could have feelings only for those who were like me in pain and agony because of the madness of our legislators.

Messenger
: Did you believe that there was a creator who created you and I, including those people you call enemies?

Stone
: Well….yes. I was told in the house of prayer I attended that there was a Supreme Being who created everything. I don't know why he had to create those ones that were different, poor, uneducated and uncivilized.

Messenger
: So, to you He shouldn't have created them?

Stone
: It was better if He hadn't created them. Can't you see that they were pests and trouble makers?

Messenger
: But you needed those ‘enemies' as laborers on your estates as well as a market for your products, not leaving out the fact that you needed them to feel important. You ate the food those of them who were your cooks prepared with their hands. You benefited from their labor which you exploited. You benefited from the natural resources tapped out of the regions the low lives came from. You benefited from the trade between your country and theirs. I would have thought that since you hated them for one reason or the other, you would have kept them out of every picture. I mean… not sell your products to them, exploit their labor, and so on. What would have happened if the Supreme Being hadn't created them?

Stone:
(Scratches his head) Well, if it was for the purpose of labor and market, He had the right to create them.

Messenger
: I see…one last question: Did you love your creator?

Stone
: What a question… I think it is the same as asking me if I loved my mother. The answer is a big YES. That was the first thing we were taught in school and houses of prayer. I loved my creator very much. He is the ultimate destination Everyman wants to get to. But wait a minute….since I came in here you've been bombarding me with questions. Do you have a problem with the way I lived my life?

Messenger
: Do you really want to have an answer to that question?

Stone
: Yes.

Messenger
: Alright… I will give you an answer. I would like you to sit down because I wouldn't want anything to distract you.

Stone
: (
walks to the couch. Contemplates if to sit on it or not. Finds the couch too dirty Decides to
remain standing
)

Messenger
: Half bread is better than none. You must learn to love that couch as it is.

Sandi
: (walks and sits on the couch)
.

Stone
: (looks at Sandi with a stern expression on his face)
.

Sandi
: (
leaves the couch and remains standing)
.

Messenger
: You would remember that somewhere in the course of our conversation, I told you that I could not understand why my master's love for variety had to become a huge problem to you in the course of your life down there. He created everything you saw including those that you called enemies with love. It was your place to treat all those people and things He created with dignity. My master is very please when he sees that all what He created is treated with dignity. Instead, what did you do? You brandished some enemies simply because they looked different, were poor, were uneducated and had a civilization you considered primitive. Let me tell you that when He created you, He breath into you so that you would have life. He did the same thing with those people you considered enemies or low-lives. Breathing into you so that you could have life meant that He lived in you just as He lived and lives in every one of them. With such a behavior I wonder how you can now claim to have loved my master whom you've never seen during your life time when you could not love some people you could see under the pretext that they looked different, poor, uneducated and primitive. Listen, my master measures your love for Him through the love you show to your brothers human beings. By rejecting those people, it was my master, our creator you rejected because he lived in them.

Secondly, when my master's servants came to you to tell you that all human being were created equal, you grew furious and had them kicked out. When your leaders and some members in the House of Representative passed Bills to make your treatment of the so called low-lives illegal, you referred to them as mad men. They simply wanted to reinforce the wishes of my master. You thought it unimaginable for someone to tell you that you were equal to those ‘low lives.' And even right now, you are still arguing for the sake of argument. Well I will explain how equal all human beings are.

Stone
: I am all ears

Messenger
: You are made using the same material….soil of the earth. You are all born of a woman. You are all born with nothing. After living for some time, you all die. After death, your bodies return to the earth where you were taken from. Your blood is red. You all have the ability to speak and reason. You do not choose your parents and do not decide the day you die. All these are what connect you human beings as equals. You refused to see them and focused only on what your eyes could see. You saw and defined them by their poverty, illiteracy and uncivilized nature. It's true that they looked different, they were poor, they couldn't read and write but that didn't in any way cancel the fact that you were all equal in the eyes of my master.

Stone
: I don't see why you keep trying to defend what cannot be defended. Things are so clear for you and me to see that all human beings were not born equal.

Messenger
: That is not true. Let me buttress my point with an example you knew so well. Your mother was a business woman who started trading in ice cream ever since you were a child. You grew up to know that ice cream was white because your mother made hers and used only the white color. When you grew older, you picked up a girl friend called Tania with whom you decided to go on a trip. When you got to your destination, it was too hot and you decided to go for ice cream. When you got to where it was sold and requested to be served, you were given ice cream which had a different color from the white you grew up knowing. The one which was given to you had a pink color and you refused to touch it because it was not white. Your girl friend was served with one which had yet another color. Hers was brownish. You called the young man who served you and asked him what he would call what he served you with. He told you that what he served you was called ice cream. But you could not still believe because you had it in your mind that anything ice cream must be white in color. You even tried to stop Tania from eating hers but she was stubborn and urged you to taste yours. When you did, you realized that it was not different from the one your mother made though it had a different color. Do you know why the name of those ones could not be changed from ice cream to something else? It was because the main ingredients remained the same. The color was just a minor ingredient and it was not even the principal ingredient among the minor ingredients. That's why the taste remained the one you knew though the colors were different. You human beings are like that ice cream having main and minor ingredients which my master used in creating you. You left the main ingredients which united all of you together and concentrated on the minor ones which sort of disunited you. You had the opportunity to taste what was served to you in a different town and after tasting it, you saw that it was indeed ice cream. Did you give the opportunity to those people to prove their worth before brandishing them low-lives?

Stone
: Your explanation on the ice cream is very true. But when you try to connect it to us humans, it does not fit. Do you know why? It is because your equality theory does not fit as well. Now tell me something… if our creator created us and wanted us to be equal, he would have made everybody rich. But He didn't. Why?

Messenger
: Have you yourself tried to picture a world where everybody is materially rich? That is a question you've asked not long ago. There will be chaos and my master was aware of that and had to make opposites. You would realize that for example the poor were always where the rich were. You could not find a materially rich man without finding many materially poor people around him. You could not find an educated man without seeing many uneducated men around him. You could not find a civilized man without seeing many uncivilized men around him. You could not see a financially rich man without seeing many financially poor people around him. That was no coincidence. It was my master's design to test your generosity, selflessness and love. You were supposed to use what was given to you, to serve humanity. If you are a rich man and you hate somebody else because he is poor, then use some of that your wealth to make him what you expected him to be. There is nothing wrong in doing that. That was what you failed to do and are still here contesting my ‘equality theory' as you put it. You yourself just said a few minutes ago that some of those low-lives became prominent as a result of the madness of some of your leaders. If they could become prominent, it means they were endowed with the same creative and managerial abilities as you were. They too went to school and became pilots, doctors, engineers etc. What could you or your likes do that they couldn't? That still goes to show that you were made equal and endowed with a common ability……reasoning. Do you know why everybody could not be rich? It's because everybody could not be a doctor, or a business man or a teacher. If everybody were to become a doctor, who would be a teacher, engineer, or pilot?

Stone
: (
Bends his head and stares at the dusty floor. Opens his mouth to speak but the words do not
come out. Remains silent)

Messenger:
(
Continues
) So, my master did not create people and make them materially rich because He knew what creating people and making all of them materially or financially rich would engender. That's why he made some people different, poor, uncivilized and uneducated. It was out of my master's love for variety that things were made that way and I don't see how that was supposed to become a problem to you. (
Reflects for while
,
Smiles
uneasily
) isn't it strange that you showed so much love towards animals but couldn't show some love towards your fellow brothers simply because they were poor or looked different or uneducated? You participated in voting laws protecting the rights of animals but you denied the same rights to your brothers because of some trivial reasons. You were given the right to do whatever you wanted with animals from creation including killing them for food. But you were forbidden to kill your fellow human and it was well spelt out in the fifth commandment. If you can kill an animal for food it means that it is not supposed to be more important than your brother for what ever reason. If you could give rights to animals, what more of your fellow brothers? Up till today, some of the sons and daughters of those you hated because they looked different do suffer all forms of discriminations especially in work places or job offers though they may have the same qualifications, talents or better. Only some jobs that are considered inferior are reserved for them. My master's heart bleeds when He sees all that. Hating your brother because he looks different, inferior, uneducated or uncivilized is telling your creator that you do not appreciate his own love for variety. In that case, Any Man who hates his brother for whatever reason has a case file to come and face here once he or she crosses that bar that separates this world from the one you just came from. That brings us to your third transgression.

Stone:
(
Raises the head and stares at messenger but does not say anything
).