A Matter Of Faith

There was once a man, and he was a good man. He would never harm a fly. But he would never go out of his way to do good either. He smiled a lot, so mostly people liked having him around them. He would go to work everyday and return to his home in the evening.

He would seem to you like every other man you know. But he was different. He believed in God. So do most men, you would argue. True, but unlike most men, he had a very special kind of relationship with his God.

And this is how it was. The man believed that to keep his God happy at all times, he must go to the Idol (one that resembles his God), same day every week, at the very same hour, sit down, shut his eyes tight, and think of God’s name 500 times. This was it, the man really believed in this.

And so he would go. He would go to the idol (one that resembles his God), same day every week, at the very same hour, sit down, shut his eyes tight, and think of God’s name 500 times. He never failed in doing this.

In time he got married. His wife was lovely and the man was happy with this choice. Even after marriage, he would go to the idol (one that resembles his God), same day every week, at the very same hour, sit down, shut his eyes tight, and think of God’s name 500 times, only this time he would take his wife along. Although the wife was a believer of God, she did not believe she had to go to the idol (one that resembles his God), same day every week, at the very same hour, sit down, shut her eyes tight, and think of God’s name 500 times, for her to connect with her God. But she did it anyways. She did it more for her husband than for her God.

A year passed by. One day the wife went suddenly ill. Her body burned with fever and her face turned a sickly yellow. She was too weak to walk on her own legs and call for help. She was hoping her husband would return home soon from his work and tend to her. But she doubted in her heart that it would ever happen.

You see, by fate’s deceitful twist, the day the wife got suddenly ill, was the very same day when the man was to go to the idol (one that resembles his God), at the very same hour, sit down, shut his eyes tight, and think of God’s name 500 times!

The man was in a dilemma. Was he to tend to his wife, or to his God? He had a difficult choice to make. ‘If I tend to my dear God’, thought the man, ‘my dear God would tend to my wife, and she would get better. After all, it is this very God that brought her into my life!’ And on this note, he hurried on to tend to his God, for the hour was close when he had to go to the idol (one that resembles his God), same day every week, at the very same hour, sit down, shut his eyes tight, and think of God’s name 500 times.

The man did his duty to his God, and returned home only to find his wife dead in their bed. She had a look of desperation in her dead eyes, perhaps a sign of a painful death. But nowhere on her still face did he sense disappointment. She probably knew he would tend to his God before he tended to his wife. She was a good wife, she had always understood.

For five days the man cried. On the sixth day he started to go to his work again, and return to his home in the evening. By the 192nd day, he had forgotten all about her.

Years passed, and as always, the man would go to the idol (one that resembles his God), same day every week, at the very same hour, sit down, shut his eyes tight, and think of God’s name 500 times. He lived a fulfilling life and lived to grow a very old man. You see, although his God was very pleased with him, he was not pleased enough to keep him young forever. Like all others around him (believers and non-believers), he grew just as old.

One day, when he was 88 years old, some school kids came into his old-age home. They had come to do some kind of survey on old people in old-age homes (I don’t really have the details about this survey, but I heard them saying to the man that it was for a school project). The kids started to ask the man a lot of questions about his life as a young man. Finally they got to the subject of his wife.

‘Why did your wife die, old man?’ asked one of the kids. ‘Well, she died because I made a mistake’, said the man. ‘And what mistake did you make, old man?’ ask the very same kid again. ‘You see’ started the man, ‘you see, to keep my God happy I go to the idol (one that resembles my God), same day every week, at the very same hour, sit down, shut my eyes tight, and think of God’s name 500 times.’ ‘So?’ asked the very same kid once again. ‘So’ said the man, ‘on that very day, I went to the idol (one that resembles my God), at the very same hour, I sat down, shut my eyes tight, and thought of God’s name. But alas, I thought it only 499 times!’

(This is my first attempt at a fictional short story)