O l i v e r B e n j a m i n
supplying you with the funds to pull off such a crusade?”
Zarathustra almost laughed. “You can’t seriously think that it is
difficult for us to raise something as mundane as petty cash, do you?”
he said. “We have the power to shape worlds, and to destroy them if
need be.”
“Yes, I see. But if you were in fact who you say you are, it seems
rather crude that you would resort to commercial advertisements
and news interviews to get your point across. If you were so powerful,
wouldn’t you find a more dynamic way to spread the message? I have
to be honest with you, we were all expecting something a little more
dramatic from the second coming than this.”
“What were you expecting then?” Krishna joined in, “That the
clouds would part and a great booming voice would come echoing
from the heavens? Repent sinners, for the time is at hand? We are
not of that sort, Mr. Koppel. And even more than even we might have
expected, this is a time far different from the one in which we first
appeared. Now, voices
do
boom from the heavens, but they boom
through your television sets, through your radios, and hopefully
through your consciences. We are merely using the channels that you
are accustomed to, and if that seems something less than divine, you
will just have to wait until the end of your world, if it comes to that,
and see just how considerable our power is.”
“I understand your point. However, you must realize that there is
no way that people will believe you if you don’t perform supernatural
acts.” Koppel said. In a prudent display of candor, he added, “In fact,
the only reason that I have gone along this far with you is because my
network has insisted that I do so. I, and I would suspect most of the
people watching this program, have no reason to suspect that
anything you say is true, and until you prove us different, you will
surely be thought of as a media prank and nothing more.”
“Then you will have to stay tuned, Mr. Koppel,” Gautama said
confidently, “The show is just about to start.”
Doug felt a little odd. Surely they couldn’t be serious, yet there was
something about them that seemed so believable. He didn’t want to
believe them. And, of course, he wanted to believe them even less a
half an hour later, when he learned that he had become the richest
convenience store clerk in the history of the planet. It’s difficult to
enjoy a hundred million dollars, after all, when there’s no Earth on
which to build a big house like the Waltons and keep many quality
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