“How are you doing?” Harmony asked once Zion had shut the door.
“I feel empty.” Zion answered honestly. “The Lord gives and he takes away, but I know I will see her again.” His small smile faltered and he took a deep breath to compose himself. “Anyway, that’s not why I have you all here.” Zion sat down and gestured to them to do the same.
“What do you need us to do?” Harmony asked. “We’d love to help in any way we can.”
“Well, I have a theory.” Zion began. “If the other realm is inhabited by demons and darkness, perhaps we need to flush all those things out with good things. The entrance to that place that was in my lab is no longer there, so that proves they can be closed. Think of the cracks we’ve been finding as wounds and the infection must be pushed out before the wounds can properly heal.”
“That makes sense.” Arrow affirmed.
“Good.” Zion scratched his nose. “Thought Conductor’s have been used to help people forget bad memories but if a large group of people chooses to erase one positive memory, it’ll flood Oblivion with good things In theory, if we have enough of these thoughts, they should push out the bad which will allow the cracks to heal.”
Harmony nodded. “When Lacey’s past self came back with me to the real world, she didn’t last long. The bad things should disappear if they are trapped here long enough. How will we get enough people to delete their happy memories?”
“That I can do. I have an email list of several of the churches that support us that I can utilize.” Zion answered.
“What do we do about Doc, though?” Arrow asked.
“Oh-no…I forgot.” Zion said sadly. “He’s still in there?”
“As far as I know.”
“No, I’m not anymore.”
Everybody turned around and saw Dr. Evers in much rougher condition than the last time they had seen him. His pants were covered in mud and his face had sprouted more than just scruff. His hair was matted in places and his scratched-up hands were gripping the handles of a wheelchair he was guiding. In the wheelchair was his wife Mayre. Her head was tilted to the side and her hands folded in her lap as if they were glued there.
“Doc!” Arrow rushed over and hugged his friend. He looked down at Mayre and said, “Hello, Mayre.”
She didn’t respond but simply stared straight ahead.
“She’s in there somewhere.” Clive insisted.
“Oh, Clive.” Zion said sympathetically. “What happened?”
Clive explained how Mayre had volunteered for research alongside Preston Winston but they had ended up taking too much from her and leaving her like a vegetable. He also explained the other things he had seen and confessed for the first time to friends rather than a priest about his infidelity.
“I am an awful man, husband, and Christian.” Clive’s voice cracked and he slumped into a chair sobbing.
Zion immediately closed the distance between them and embraced Clive tightly. “Jesus Christ has already forgiven you for what you have done and what you will do. It has already been paid for.” Zion said confidently. “No matter what you’ve done, you can lay everything at the foot of the cross and Christ will help you through.”
“Is that for everybody or just Christians?” Arrow asked suddenly.
“You must choose to accept the truth of the Bible and believe in the Lord Jesus. Then repent. Once you receive that forgiveness, you will be a child of God. No sin that you have committed can ever separate you from God.” Zion let go of Clive and smiled.
“I don’t see how you can still talk about God when he allowed Rachel to be murdered in front of us.” Harmony blurted out.
Clive stammered, “W-what happened to Rachel?”
“Something happened to Pat and he killed her in front of us.” Arrow said softly.
Zion turned to Harmony, unsurprised by her reaction. He responded honestly, “I don’t fully understand why he took her either, but that doesn't change the fact that he is a loving and forgiving God. I am confident that everything that happens is for our good even if we don’t see it.” His eyes filled with tears and his voice shook with barely suppressed emotion.
“But why would a loving God allow so much pain?” Her voice cracked as she demanded answers.
“To increase our dependence on him. If we knew all that he knows, we would very likely allow all the things that have happened to happen again.”
Harmony’s brows knitted together in confusion but she didn’t ask any more questions.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Zion.” Clive said. “Could we pray together?”
Zion nodded and smiled with all the warmth that Harmony was familiar with. He and Rachel were the only people she knew who could continue to exude joy amidst despair. This solidified in her heart that what they believe must have some merit, because how could anybody be happy after what the Jones’ had been through?
***
In a matter of days, Zion had contacted thousands of churches about his plan. All volunteers in this experiment had microchips and had offered to delete one happy memory for the sake of the world. Clive was floored by the huge network of churches Zion was connected to. Clive only connected with the members of his church, but never ventured out beyond that.
After Zion and Clive had prayed together the night before, he felt like a renewed man. He hadn’t felt the urge to show others up or constantly bemoan what had happened to Mayre. Instead, he was content. He knew that his life would be harder with Mayre’s condition, but he had hope that there would be a cure. If no cure was found in this life, certainly there would be one in the next.
All the local churches that had volunteered met up with Zion and Clive at the spot Zion had discovered by stargazing in his observatory. Harmony and Arrow were at the opening that had appeared in Harmony’s backyard. Zion decided to livestream what was happening so the out-of-state churches were able to observe and Clive kept his phone on a Facetime call with Arrow to see if they had similar results.
The trio of trees surrounding the tear between dimensions swayed slightly with the autumn wind. The leaves had long since fallen off the branches and littered the ground they were all standing on. Zion’s laptop was filled with faces and, on the presentation screen, there was a countdown clock. Once the clock reached zero, Zion instructed everybody to release one happy memory. Zion had reactivated his chip before this experiment, so he pressed a button on his phone along with Harmony and the rest of the churches.
Nothing happened at first, but then Clive could hear rumbling. As he looked at the black line, it seemed to be curling up and spreading like smoke. Even so, nothing else seemed to be happening.
“Give it a moment.” Zion muttered.
Clive waited patiently but continued to watch the dark line pulse before them. Nothing was leaving Oblivion, though.
As five tense minutes passed, Clive said, “Maybe our theory was flawed.”
