Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-35711173-20190515084101

"Hey Son," Mr. Pendray said. "What you got there?"

"An English assignment.

My mother rented a couple of rooms at Mr. Pendray's. It was cheap, and I really liked him. I guess he was the closest thing to a father I ever knew. He picked the assignment up and smiled. "Black Sabbath's Electric Funeral. Not what I would have expected."

"You've heard of it?"

"Oh yeah. I remember when Black Sabbath was a happening band."

"Mr. Shahaar said we got to write an original essay about what it's about, and I can't make heads or tails of it. This stuff is WEIRD!"

He smiled. "Yeah, if you don't know where it comes from and understand it all I guess it could seem kind of weird."

I was astonished. "You understand this?" Like any High School student, I had waited until the night before the paper was due to start and was desperate for any help I could get.

He nodded wordlessly. "Ever wanted to make a knife?"

"Yeah, sure." Of course, I did, and it sure beat the idea of this homework.

"What kind of knife shall I make?"

"An Army knife."

"Whose Army?"

I shrugged. "The most badass one there ever was."

"Get a couple of cold Dr. Peppers and your homework and meet me in my workshop."

Mr. Pendray's workshop was a magical place that my mother said I should stay out of. He fixed cars and made knives with fire there. I think she was afraid I'd hurt myself, but she couldn't argue if he was going to help me with my homework.

By the time I had the sodas and my homework, the grinder was wailing. The forge blower was turned on, but there was barely enough coal to take the edge off the night chill. Instead of hammering away, he just was sitting on a chair waiting for me with a book in his hands. I was afraid I recognized the book from school, but I smiled and swallowed nervously, hoping I was wrong.

"Do you know the book Electric Funeral came from?"

I shook my head. He lay a piece of heavy metal against a grinder, sending sparks and ear-splitting noise. That seemed to satisfy him, but it made me even more nervous. My worst fears were confirmed when he turned the book around. It was a Bible. I'd long suspected him of thought crimes, but I liked him so much I kept my eyes closed to anything I was supposed to denounce in school Pep rallies.

"That's crazy," I said, not even thinking. "The Bible is at the top of the banned books list. How could a socially progressive song have anything to do with a banned book?"

"Old Ozzy Osborne was an Episcopalian Christian who prayed before every performance. One night, he was tripping balls while reading it.  He and Geezer Butler got together, and that's what Geezer made of it." He hefted the book. "Any idea what's in here?

I looked at the book hungrily, then shook my head. I'd never even seen a forbidden book before, but like any kid, I wanted to know why it was so horrible that they had to ban it.

"The word Bible means library. It's a book of many books.  It's got history, music, poetry, even a bit of soft porn.  A lot of it is news, some news that there is a better way of life and even news of the future. That's what Electric Funeral was taken from, a book in the Bible called Revelations.  Imagine being a newspaper reporter 2,000 years ago seeing the Emperor of North Korea launching that giant death ray space platform and us launching all our space death rays.  What words would you use?"

There weren't any newspapers that long ago. Even I knew better than that. How could it be news?

He picked up the homework assignment. "The first verse sounds like it's from the Bible. The second verse is all over the place, but Geezer's description of robot minds of robot slaves leading men into graves sounds like your school.  Your teachers and the New Order just suck the brains right out of you kids. That bridging verse is right out of Revelations, chapters eight and sixteen.  It bridges between that war and what will be." He opened that little black Bible and thumbed through pages. "When you see what Saint John described in the news, you know what's happening next."

"The earthquakes from the first line are right in chapter 11, but earthquakes happen. It's the rivers turning into wood.  That's from Revelations sixteen."

He pointed to a paragraph in the book, and I silently read it, excited to really be committing a thought crime. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

"Then Geezer said 'ice melts into blood. That's Revelations 8, eight and nine."

Again, I silently read it, thrilled but afraid.

When the second angel sounded its trumpet I saw what seemed like a huge mountain, ablaze with fire, being thrown into the ocean. And one third of the ocean turned to blood, And a third of the sea was turned to blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea perished, and a third of the ships were destroyed. "Next is Earth lies in death bed." He flipped a few pages and pointed out a paragraph, The second poured out his bowl into the sea. It turned to blood like a dead man's, and all life in the sea died.

He pointed to the third verse of the song. And so, in the sky Shines the electric eye Supernatural king Takes Earth under his wing Heaven's golden chorus sings Hell's angels flap their wings Evil souls fall to Hell Ever trapped in burning cells

"The bridge verse of earthquakes and water turning into blood and the sea dying leads us up to when the supernatural king comes down from the sky. He takes Earth under his wing. Heaven sings, and all the evil souls are trapped forever in burning cells in Hell."

I read it and read it, then looked at the verses in his little black Bible. It really did all fit. "Even if that's where they took the song from, that doesn't mean the Bible isn't true."

"You're going to have to read it yourself to find out." He handed me a phone micro memory card. "That's every book the New Order has banned. You can toss it in the forge now, or you can learn the truth."

I took the little chip and tucked it away. "You know what they will do to you if they find out."

"They can't kill a dead man. I got cancer, bad."

"But they can cure cancer now."

"Not for a believer. Every time I make appointments at the cancer doctors, they always have to reschedule right before I am supposed to come in.  'Just next month, just a few more weeks,' they say.  I got to pay my healthcare tax all the same, but they are going to get rid of us by quietly let us die off."

We heard the sound of my mother's car pulling up the gravel driveway. The Bible disappeared into a cabinet. Then he flicked off the grinder, put the steel in the fire and buried the end under some more coal. She opened the door to the workshop. "Good Evening, Alfred." Then her laser beam eyes turned on me. "Jaden, I told you not to come on in here."

"Blame me," Mr. Pendray said. "I was just trying to help him with his homework. He has got this song he has to write an essay on.  I was trying to explain that it's all about how the evil empires like North Korea want to start a war with us and how our Glorious leader will cook them in an electric funeral with the new space weapons systems and how his victories will begin a new era of peace and prosperity."

"That was what he was saying," she asked.

I nodded. "I couldn't get the right thinking."

"Come on in, Jaden. Time to finish your essay inside."

"Thanks," I said to Mr. Pendray. "I won't forget the lesson."

Someone denounced Mr. Pendray about a month later. He died in jail not long after. When the State took over his place, we had to move on. But I never did forget. He must have been thinking about giving me that chip for a while because there was a note to me on it.

"Jaden, Start with Animal Farm and then 1984 by George Orwell. Read Profiles in Courage by John Kennedy after that.  Never forget the news in the Bible.  Some may be a little hard to understand, but I added a few commentaries to make it easier for you.  We are getting close to the end of time when the King of Kings will return."

I carefully read some of those books at night when my Mom was out, hiding them on an old tablet. Then came the night when we used our death ray space stations on China, and North Korea and they used their space-based nuclear weapons on us. Explosions like earthquakes tumbled down whole cities and burned them away like pigsties. All of Asia was a glowing slag heap. Then the news said that a third of the sea life was killed, and the dead zone was spreading. 