Parsons Comes to America. Parson’s dream of new Earths. Parson’s speech to the blue collared.
1 And the skies boiled with angry clouds. The seas were heated so that the foundation could not hold.
2 For it is known that each thing has its place in the cycle of energy.
3 The tiniest plants fed the smallest animals and on up to men themselves.
4 With these small things gone, there was no longer any place to stand.
5 Great cities drowned, towers sinking into the sea, no longer even home for fish.
6 On this trembling ground did the people cling.
7 Men with white collars lived in glass towers. Blood was pulled from the heart of Earth and poured into engines that cooled them.
8 Men with blue collars slaved in heat and damp and sickness.
9 Into the land of America came a man of learning, named Jack Parsons.
10 "Listen to me," he said to his men, "God’s tower is falling and we must build another for him."
11 He turned his face unto the sky, and said, "This Earth is built of mud and bits of green. So much wet will dissolve it.
12. If we are to live, we must find new Earths of stone and steel, far from the seas."
13 Jack and his men conferred, and came down from their cool places of rest to the men who worked.
14 "If you build this tower to Heaven, then you shall be the first to see new Earths," spoke Parsons.
15 "We shall die in the building," spoke one, "while you watch us. It is hot. Stone is heavy. There is water all around, and none fit to drink."
16 Parsons nodded, "All towers are built on bones, but your ribs shall be a ladder for your children.
17 Your thigh bones shall act as pillars.
18 Your skull will be like a cup of cold water. Your children shall want for nothing."
19 Desperate men make difficult choices with ease.
20 And so the Tower was started.
Chapter 17
The Tower is finished. The Rapture of the Sky. Parsons climbs the Tower
1 At the top of the Tower one could look down and see the world, round and perfect, and this left men breathless.
2 Breathing engines drank the blood of the Earth and breathed for the men who had to look down on such perfection.
3 Without these engines a man would stare down and die lost in beauty.
4 To see the Earth all of a whole was to see as God sees. Sky rapture, it was called, and many men died if their engines failed.
5 And around the Earth spun the machines and engines men had placed there, beeping and whirring and spreading words around the sky in letters large enough they could be seen around the world.
6 And around the Earth too were thousands of blue collars who had fallen to rapture or blue collars who had fallen from the tower.
7 So high had they fallen that they would not touch the ground again, spinning and spinning forever and ever until God sent angels to breath upon them and nudge them home in showers of light that sparked.
8 Children would see these brief flashes and wish upon them. They would wish their mothers and fathers would come home, never knowing they had.
9 Strange and beautiful and horrible times these were,
10 And by the time the Tower was finished, there was no life in the seas that anyone knew of
11 No animals in the woods that anyone knew of
12 Less than half as many people as there once had been, most hungry,
13 And Parsons was old beyond old. In his ninety-second year, he climbed the side of the tower in an engine that lifted him, for it was too far to walk.
14 So close was he to heaven even as he walked the ground that his wife and children begged him not to go.
15 "I saw this tower in dreams, and I will see it before I die. This tower is a stairway to heaven and we shall all climb it to freedom and new frontiers" he said and left.
16 His engine breathed for him, but it was not enough and in his bones he believed this was his last trip.
17 His eyes watered. His breathing was labored, and at the top of the Tower, God was waiting for him.
Chapter 18
God’s message to Parsons. The tower falls. The Storm begins.
1 The Lord was without form, but his voice was loud and present, though only Parsons could hear it.
2 His presence was filled with heat and sudden motion, and Parsons wept at the sight of Him.
3 "Parsons," God Spoke, "Your Tower is complete"
4 Parsons nodded and answered, "By your grace, oh Lord, I have built it."
5 The Lord was displeased, "You built not a stone but the dreaming of it. A million faceless men toiled at your dream. Many died, and you feel this your accomplishment?"
6 "The idea was the most important piece of it, oh Lord. Without high dreams we will all die on your world, pinned by gravity slowly cooking."
7 The Lord was silent, then spoke, "My child, you have not yet learned.
8 Without high dreams, you would be safe on the ground.
9 Without high dreams, you would not have pulled My world to pieces.
10 Without high dreams you would all be happy.
11 You have reached too high, and taken too much, like a dog who will eat until he bursts.
12 Your engines and thinking machines have not made you happier.
13 They have made you hungry and empty and rapacious.
14 Did you think another shining machine was what you needed?
15 Did you imagine you could make a world finer than Mine?
16 You could have lived simply. I gave you paradise.
17 You will have it again."
18 Parsons wept in the face of the Lord and knew of his folly.
19 "Oh merciful God, will you restore the Earth?"
20 "The Earth will restore itself."
21 "And what of us, God? What will become of Men? What of the covenant of the Flood?"
22 "I said I would never again send a flood to clean the earth. And I did not. You bring this one upon yourself.
23 Parsons fell to his knees and begged, "Oh merciful father please save my people. Don’t punish all for my vanity."
24 God spoke, sadly and kindly, "I will not move my hand. You have your own will, and what has happened is your own doing.
25 It is a poor father who does not let his child find his own way in the world.
26 You will learn to live simply."
27 The presence of God withdrew, and there rose from the tower a terrible shrieking as it began to fall.
28 So tall was the tower that as it fell it wrapped around the world like a snake around a rabbit.
29 Parsons stared at the ground as he was pulled from sky rapture and into terrible heat and then into God’s arms.
30 And when the tower had finished falling, there was a moment of utter stillness in all the earth,
31 And then it began to rain.
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