LJ Idol Season 7: Week 26; Turtles All The Way Down
“Who created the Gods, do you think?" Aislinn glanced over at her companion who was lazily laying in the grass looking at the clouds.
“Hmm I never really thought too much about it...I dunno.” Cian’s eyes closed a bit as he started to drift off to sleep.
“Why not?”
“Why would I? They are merely there, and for that, I am thankful...” Cian rolled over to face the other direction, trying to give the hint to Aislinn that he would rather be sleeping than having this conversation. “The larger question is why are they not helping us during our greatest time of need...”
“Maybe it’s because they really aren’t there after all. I mean, if they were, someone would have had to create them, right?” Aislinn bit her lip, waiting for the backlash from such a scurrilous comment.
“Sweetie, you best be careful what you say...Thinking too much about these things could get you into some deep trouble...” Cian’s voice was tinged with concern for his best friend. Her thoughts often bordered on the scandalous, which in this time of need, could be a very dangerous thing.
“I’m not worried about it. I have you to protect me.” She threw a rock in his direction and smiled down upon him. She was a mischievous little sprite, and the town all knew that about her. But the trouble with her questions is that there are some questions one really wasn’t supposed to ask. It was assumed the world was created by the Gods, their existence was never questioned. No one had ever thought to ask ‘Who created them?” No one paid them any mind whatsover these days. They were there, present somewhere between time and space...And would help us out whenever anyone asked.
Until recently, which now everyone had the question “Why did they turn their backs on us?”
The walk through town was never easy these days. The old storefronts that were once vibrant and full of life were boarded up, locks placed on their doors so that people could no longer enter.
This wasn’t the town they had grown up in, not at all. Well, it was physically the same location and the same name, but nothing like it had been. The once bustling city was nothing more than ruins, artifacts of a time before the Gods took their attention away from them.
“I miss Clara’s bakery. She always had the most amazing muffins...”
“Yeah, I know. I still miss the brownies with those little nuts on top...”
The conversations were always the same, about all that they lost, all that they miss...But never about why it happened. It was one of those things you merely didn’t question. The Gods took away their good graces for one reason or another, it was gone, and humanity was merely doomed to waste away to nothing unless they chose to bless them with rain and food once more.
“So you don’t think that perhaps, it’s our fault? All this?” Aislinn knew this was another dangerous discussion to get into, but she did often wonder why everyone placed so much blame onto the Gods, of which no one ever saw or could prove the existence of.
“Aislinn, seriously...This is not a conversation we should be having if we want to get back on the Gods good side again. Never discount what they are capable of...” Cian looked around carefully, as if the sacred beings might be watching them from the bench in front of the old pharmacy.
“But don’t you think the way we overused the water to run our fountains played any role in the rivers drying up? It seems to make sense to me...”
“Those fountains were our way of thanking the Gods for the bountiful rain they bestowed upon us...” That was what everyone had tried to tell her for some time, it was not a new argument in the slightest.
“When the rivers were drying up, we built even more fountains! Why would we do a crazy thing like that?”
“Because we were honoring them, and asking them to give us more water in which to run the fountains, of course!”
“That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever! Think about it...We are running out of water, so in order to bring more water down upon us, we waste even more of it?”
“Aislinn...You really shouldn’t question the power of the Gods. Those fountains were needed...” Cian was awfully stubborn when he wanted to be. The townspeople themselves were too. Aislinn tried to tell them that the rivers were drying up and that maybe they should conserve the water by turning off the elaborate fountains that adorned the towns perimeter as a dedication to the mighty beings, thanking them for the privileged lives they were able to lead. She felt that the smarter thing would be to conserve the water that they did have instead of trying to beg creatures no one ever saw to give them some more. Did anyone agree with her? Of course not.
“Well then, what about the food...Surely, we wasted a lot of food at those huge banquets we held every Sunday! I saw the amount of food that got thrown out, it was always more than half the food cooked!”
“Silly...Those were part of ceremonies honoring the Gods and thanking them for all the food they provided us!”
There was no way to get through to him. There was no way to get through to any of them unfortunately...And for that reason, their world was shriveling away with empty river beds and no food on their tables.
“But what if...And just bear with me for one moment. There are no Gods, and we wasted all that food and all that water for nothing? And now we are merely the ones to blame for all our own problems?”
“Aislinn, you really astound me with your logic sometimes....” Cian shook his head and continued down the broken path toward home.