Upkeep (standard:fantasy, 3354 words)
Author: Joe Edwardson	Added: Feb 24 2002	Views/Reads: 3352/2342	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A futuristic battle of the God's on Earth. A story that shows how "Gods are only Gods and they're not perfect."

Waldo was one of the twenty God’s of Bhura, the farthest planet from
their home star, Vohstra, in the farthest galaxy on the Northern edge 
of the solar system.  Waldo was the very bottom in the God chain of 
command, his only equals supposedly being Harland and Chester, his two 
best friends, though the upper Gods always seem to favor them more than 
Waldo.  One time Waldo, Harland, and Chester were caught spreading 
epidemics from Waldo’s area of Bhura to Harland and Chester’s, to give 
Harland and Chester more interesting prayers to listen to before bed.  
Waldo had to give up partial control of his area to Isaiah, the high 
God, for five hundred years as punishment.  Harland and Chester got a 
mere slap on the wrist. 

Their rationale for punishing Waldo worse was because his area was the
origins of the epidemic in question, but the way Waldo sees it, Harland 
and Chester should have been punished much more severely than he was 
because they were the ones that wanted the epidemics in their areas in 
the first place.  The number one rule every God must have in mind when 
concerning his area is the upkeep of population.  More specifically, 
population must remain steady.  It’s allowed to be dropped when needed, 
but only when severe overpopulation is a threat.  Chester’s and 
Harland’s areas were underpopulated as it was and they chose to drop it 
even further.  In most galaxies, that’s just cause for degodification. 

Another time, when Waldo was visiting his area for a regular once per
millennia upkeep, he was punished for taking too much time in 
re-affirming his people’s faith.  A common practice in the 
re-affirmation is performing miracles for your to-be-followers in order 
to convince them you are legit.  Waldo attempted to convince his people 
without the use of miracles, proving one of his theories that any being 
could convince a mass group of people that he is God, via regular 
Bhurian commoner oral practices and generalized promises.  Waldo was 
successful and he hoped his experiment would lead to the higher God’s 
making a chromosomal change in the commoner’s to make it so they would 
develop an instinct to follow the true God if one was lucky enough to 
come around in their lifetime.  He also hoped his findings would lead 
to a promotion in the God hierarchy.  Instead, he was punished for 
unjust manipulation of his people and was sentenced to one hundred 
years in Los Angeles, planet Earth.  His theory has never been given 
consideration when taken up in a Meeting of the God’s, a once per 
century get together of all twenty God’s of Bhura. 

The time had now come for another Upkeep.  While all the other God’s
were discussing the various miracles they planned to perform for their 
people and practicing the speeches that would come to line the upcoming 
version of their people’s bible, Waldo remained silent, sitting in the 
corner of the largest room in the House of the God’s, where the 
Meeting’s of the God’s took place.  Harland and Chester came over and 
pulled up a chair. 

“What’s the matter, Waldo?” asks Chester. 

“Oh, nothing.  It’s just the Upkeep.  I can’t imagine going through
another one of these with the same old ‘Oh, my Messiah, please cure 
that leper’ routine.  It just gets so old,” Waldo replied. 

“They get old?  Upkeep’s don’t come around every year, you know,”
Chester says, slightly angry.  “You’re always looking at the negative 
side.” 

“I have so many ideas but they keep getting squashed by the Higher’s
before ever hearing them.  They are stubborn and absolutely will not 
change.  It makes no sense.  Our aim should be advancement of not only 
the commoner’s society but of our own!” declares Waldo. 

“I agree, Waldo.  But you need to work within the system.  The Higher’s
don’t trust you and most have already given up on you.  There are many 
who would vote ‘yes’ to degodification.  Before you can get anything 
done, you need to make up with the Higher’s that you have lost favor 
with,” says Chester. 

“In other words, I must kiss their ass.  And I won’t.  It’s just not
fair, Chester.  The only way the Higher’s will allow you to advance is 
if you’re a traditionalist and adopt every worn out ideal of theirs.  
It’s an impenetrable glass ceiling,” continued Waldo. 



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