God & The Light Keeper

I’ve been overloaded with Tales of the Weird lately and I’m getting a little tired of it. I’m a writer, most of you know that, I abhor “subtext”, most of you didn’t know that. I hate it for one simple reason; most of the time it doesn’t actually exist. Storytellers are just telling stories, if you read something deeper into it that’s on you…not the author.

So, in the midst of these Tales of the Weird, that I have been listening to lately along with listening to people pontificate on these–well, mostly just old fairy tales–and reading things into them that were never intended to be there I have a story of my own to share. There is absolutely positively no “subtext”.

Ready?

Here we go.

God & The Light Keeper

Once Upon a Time, a Long Long Time Ago, there was a tiny island far off the coast of any mainland. On this tiny island lived a tiny village of happy people. Also, on this island, there was a Light House with, of course, it’s Keeper.

The Light Keeper had a very important job and everyone in the village knew it. One day, in the mail for the Light Keeper, there arrived a radio. The radio was sent to him so he could be kept apprised of the weather conditions, which would make his job easier. As it so happened, his was the only radio on the tiny island.

One day, as the Light Keeper was listening to the radio he heard an alarming weather report. A very bad storm was brewing and it was headed right for the tiny island! The Light Keeper grabbed his radio, jumped on his bicycle, and swiftly peddled to the tiny village to warn everyone. When they didn’t listen to him, he turned on his radio and had them listen to the weather report.

Oh my! They cried. Then they scrambled to gather their belongings. All agreed they would meet at the docks at a certain time thus ensuring no one was left behind to suffer through the storm alone. The appointed time came but the Light Keeper did not show. In the middle of loading their meager belongings onto boats, one man was sent to get the Light Keeper. He ran as fast as he could to the Light House and said;

“Hurry up! We’re leaving now. You don’t want to be left behind in this bad storm.”

The Light Keeper said; “Oh, don’t worry about me, God will protect me. But you go, of course, you and the others go, flee to safety. Hurry up. There isn’t much time.”

The man tried to reason with the Light Keeper but all the Light Keeper kept saying was that his belief in God was so strong he was positive God would protect him. Eventually the man left, he ran all the way back to the boats, as the sky thickened he told the villagers what happened. They all got on their boats and left the island just the wind and waves started picking up.

The storm rolled in. The sky grew black. The wind howled!

The Light Keeper stood on the rough shore watching the storm roll in while listening to his radio and its weather report telling everyone to flee.

As he stood there, a man in a row boat came by and called out; “Hurry! Hurry! I’ll row you to safety! Let’s get out of here.”

The Light Keeper, standing in the torrential rain, just smiled, raised his hand, and said; “Go on, get to safety, the storm is bad. Don’t worry about me, God will protect me, he’s always with me. I’ll be fine”

The man in the row boat rowed away.

A little while later as the storm was really starting to cook, the wind was blowing a gale, the afternoon sky turned to midnight, and the rain came down in icy sheets…standing on his wet shore, the Light Keeper looked up and saw lights up in the sky. They were coming closer and closer. The Light Keeper’s heart leapt with joy at the sight!

“God!” He fell to his knees in the wet sand and called out. “God! I knew you would protect me, my Lord!”

The lights in the sky came closer and just over the roar of the wind as the lights approached the Light Keeper heard the sound of whirling blades. It wasn’t a God. It was helicopter with one very courageous pilot. Seeing the Light Keeper standing there in the storm, the pilot struggled with the wind and rain to land his helicopter on the tiny island.

“Hurry! Hurry!” The pilot called to the Light Keeper. “Get in! Get in! I’ll fly you out of here!”

The Light Keeper stood his ground, once more insisting that God would protect him. He sent the very brave pilot on his way.

After two days of terrible weather the storm finally cleared, the sun came out, the villagers returned to their tiny island only to find the Light Keeper floating face down on the shoreline. He was dead. There was nothing they could do so they buried him and went about their lives.

The Light Keeper arrived in heaven and he was very angry with God. He railed! He shouted! He yelled at God; “I believed in you! I counted on you to protect me and now I’m DEAD? How could you do this to ME?”

God, sitting on his throne, sucked on his perfect teeth as he gazed down at the angry Light Keeper until finally God moved a little forward on his throne so he could bend forward to look directly into the mans’ eyes and God said; “I sent you a radio, a row boat, and a helicopter. What more did you want from me?”

The End.

My name isn’t Aesop so I’m not going to spell out the moral for you. Like God, I’m just going to trust that you can get that part on your own.

Without a damn bit of “subtext”.