The Manual

What a magnificent leap of fantasy. Justified, though, when you don’t have the truth,” Divinity concluded as He wiped a tear from the corner of His eye.

Then He resumed, “But back to your question. Let me explain: as you very well know, my first creation was Adam, the original man. In him were contained, so to speak, every man, woman and child that would ever be born. He didn’t know it at the time, but Adam represented the whole human race. That’s when he made a rather bad decision. Adam decided to listen to a lie that told him that he wasn’t like me, that I was holding back on him and that basically I didn’t care for him.”

Divinity stopped for a mere second, looked down on the scar on His wrist and gently touched it with the thumb of His other hand. Then softly shook His head as if to clear some bad memory, and continued, “That was not a happy moment. Adam allowed imperfection to seep into his being and automatically placed himself out of my presence. I am perfect, you know.” Divinity turned his head toward the old man with such a mischievous look that the old man found it almost impossible not to 148