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Ms. St. Clair has been doing this for seven years, since the Answer Center was established—it’s really nine Answer Centers, one in each building cluster, all reporting to the main Center. Marie St. Clair has a chart affixed to the wall in her office, and another up in her rooms in Building 49. Sometimes at night, before falling asleep, she traces the organizational lines with her fingers.
Now, though, she has more to do. She will not sleep tonight. Never again. She adjusts her sash and feels the pleasing weight of the clipboard in her satchel as she glides down the corridor toward the next door.
YOU ARE MY WORK IN THE WORLD, she hears in her head as she walks with serene purpose down the corridor. It’s the voice of God, weaving golden through her mind, like a bright ba
YOU ARE SERVING MY PURPOSE AND PAVING MY WAY.
“I know!” she says, out loud. “I love you.”
YOU ARE MY VOICE YOU ARE MY WORK IN THE WORLD.
“I know!”
It’s 6:15. Ms. St. Clair knocks on the next door down—she is right on schedule. Tomorrow is May 1st. It’s happening! It’s almost here! It’s
amazing
.
• • • •
“I… have been thinking,” says Ke
The words emerge from him slowly. He is seated at the table with his chin in his hand, and A
“You have been thinking
what
?”
“Thinking—just—what if we are making a mistake?”
“We are not making a mistake.”
Ke
BRING HER TO ME, says God in A
But Ke
terrible
mistake. And it’s not too late, A
“To take care of it properly!”
The euphemism is too much for A
Ke
“What the theologians say—”
“I know what they say.”
“Let me—can I finish?”
A
“They say that only those who have heard may come through.”
“She has heard her whole life. She has heard from us.”
“Only those—”
“From her teachers. From her friends.”
“Only those who have heard
directly
may travel through. Or else—”
“She has heard her whole life,” A
Ke
“We are defying His will.”
“You don’t know what He wants.”
“Of course I do!” says Ke
“He talks to me, too! He talks to everyone.”
Ke
There is then a long silence in the room. A
BRING HER TO ME, A
“Okay, so fine. She doesn’t hear. So she’s never received the instructions. But we have, and we have told her, and she has shown no hesitation, no reluctance, because she trusts us. She trusts us and she trusts in God even though she has never heard Him. This is her test, and it is our test.”
Ke
“She has to come,” says A
The meal will be served in the morning. The morning of May 1st, the long and longingly awaited. A
“She is our daughter and she is coming through with us tomorrow. Coming along like everyone. Do you agree?”
Ke
“Do you agree?”
• • • •
The first to hear was a girl named Je
And God just came along to Je
This was when things were still good but begi
Je
TIME IS SHORT, is all He said in those first years. To her, and then at last to others. In various of the buildings; in various of the floors; His voice, mighty like a ram’s horn or hushed like the purposeful whisper of a child playing telephone, was now being heard. TIME IS SHORT.
And then, as the years went on—and the buildings slipped along on their various rates of decay—the messages began to vary, some people hearing certain things and others hearing other things. Soon everyone heard, and soon the instructions became clear and specific and nobody thought Je