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The Shepherd of Potential

Russ Bickerstaff

    It had formed around the edges of consciousness somewhere in the presence of the moment. At first it didn’t even seem to be there, but it soon made its presence known. She was there when it showed-up and so was he. It didn’t take long for both of them to take full stock of the fact that it was quite definitely there. Neither of them really knew what it was, but it was clearly the sort of thing that was going to become more than it was when it had asserted its existence.
    Dawn light was beginning to illuminate the street outside. It wasn’t easy for her, but she carried it out for him. It wasn’t going to be easy for him, but he was determined to carry it as well. He thanked her for carrying it out. She nodded, accepting his thanks. There was a moment of silence between them. It was getting rather heavy for her to carry. She was waiting for him to offer to hold it. He was waiting for her to tell him what she was going to do with it now that she had done as he asked and carried it out for him.
    The two stood there for quite some time. There was silence as the sunlight grew into a morning sort of a feeling. The two stood there motionless but not emotionless even though the two were quite silent. Two people happened by. He killed one of them because he was convinced that the person in question would have harmed the one he or she had been walking along with. He told her to hand what she had carried out to the one that remained of the two. The one that remained had been sobbing as she accepted what had been carried out.
    So he walked along with she who had just lost the one she was walking with. In tears she held that which had been carried out and everything seemed right with the world. He didn’t know what the thing might eventually turn into. Perhaps it didn’t even matter what was going to happen to it. The important thing was that it would continue to be carried and that it would have a chance to be whatever it was that it was going to be. It made him feel good to know that it was going to continue to be carried and held and moved along in the gentle procession of things as the sun climbed ever higher into the sky.
    He may not have felt the weight of that potential as she walked along with him. And he may not have thought to ask about her and how she was dealing with it all, but he felt good knowing that she wasn’t going to be in any way abused by the one that he so valiantly got rid of. And it made him feel even better to know that he had given her a purpose by having her carry what had been carried out to her.
    He marveled at how wonderful everything was and the grand design of some omnipotent being who had plans that he couldn’t hope to understand. It felt good for him to know that his actions were in keeping with the ineffable hand of some benevolent higher power that even at that moment was guiding him to aid a large group of people to bring a great number of other things into the world amidst the friction and turmoil of all the things that were a factory.
    She held that which had been carried out as he surveyed the actions and labors of those who worked for him in building all those things that would be taken over to the other side of the world to make sure that the people he knew were evil would cease to be. It wasn’t something that he liked to think about doing firsthand as he didn’t like to think about the grizzly nature of eradicating evil from the world, which is why it was such a good thing that there were those who were willing to do it for him in exchange for all those things he already had and selflessly took for granted with great courage so that others didn’t have to.
    He had thought to glance over at the thing that had been carried out when he saw that neither it nor the woman who had been carrying it were anywhere to be found. He was confident that it would be okay, though, as he was quite confident in his ability to delegate authority and so he continued about his day dutifully watching over a vast factory, reprimanding those who weren’t doing the work he needed them to do and making certain that those who did a bad enough job weren’t allowed to do any kind of job at all.
    Silently to the one who wasn’t listening it slunk along. It would be deafening to those who were. It had moved away from she who was carrying it. It had been beaten by those who were no longer working at the factory. It would learn to beat them in time. In time it would slink along across the ocean to the other side of the world where it would sink its teeth into others who would sink their teeth into those who had been sent over to fight an evil of which they had little knowledge and less understanding.
    He who had ensured its survival would take stock of it only once it had asserted itself on the other side of the world and only then from afar as he sent others and other things over to fight it and that which fought with it. The sun began to settle on everything once more. It had been a long day and it would be a longer night as a man slunk into bed. Earlier that day he had decided that something should be brought out with him. Just at the moment he didn’t exactly remember what it was. By morning he will have forgotten about the whole affair altogether as one day became the next in the incessant blur that was life in the postmodern world.

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