The Wager Part 1
I awoke from a sound sleep by a strange sound at the foot of my bed. Fearing that I had a thief brazenly robbing my apartment while I slept, I didn’t move and tried to control my breathing and figure out what to do. My cell phone was next to my bed could I grab it and dial 911 and fend off the thief at same time?
“Adam you do not need to worry about calling the police you will not be harmed by us, we are not petty crimminals.”
I sat up and looked down at the foot of my bed and saw two men standing there. The one on my left looked to be about 80 years old with glasses and wearing what looked like a jogging outfit of some kind. The one on my right looked to be in his mid 30’s dressed in a black Armani suit.
“Either I am still asleep having one weird dream or your the weirdest pair of thieves in the world and I think I will call the police.”
“You will find that your phone doesn’t work for the moment.” the one on the right said. I hit the on button and started dialing 911. I heard the phone ring followed by that annoying recording you get when you accidently dial a number that is not working: “we are sorry the number you have dialed is not connected please try another number or dial 0 for assistance”. Now panic started to set in how could 911 not be connected.
“Please calm yourself Adam we are only here to offer you a proposal.” the one on the left stated. For some reason I felt a peace come over me as I looked at this old man. “It is a simple proposal we would like your help with a wager my associate and I have.”
“Slow down a minute, you broke into my apartment at, (I glance at my alarm clock) 2 o’clock in the morning to settle a wager?”
“You are partially correct Adam we want you to settle a wager between us but we did not break into your apartment.” the one on the right said.
“Right... if you didn’t break into my apartment and I know I didn’t let you in then how do you explain your presence here then?”
“First let me introduce ourselves, you may call me God and you may call my associate..” the one on the left said
“You can call me Nick and we simply materialized ourselves in your room.” the one on the right said.
“Are you seriously trying to say you are God and that you just decided to pop in and give me a visit?” I addressed the one on the left. “You really expect me to believe that?”
“Yes Adam I do” and with a blink of an eye my bed is hovering amongst the clouds and the two strangers are still at the foot of my bed.
“OH MY GOD” I scream.
“Exactly” God said with a smile on his face.
“Ok I believe you, you are God, what do you want with me? I know I haven’t been to church in a long while but a personal visit is a little much.”
“It is like I said we need you to settle a wager between Nick and myself”
“Ok I know you are God but who is Nick?” I ask while looking at the other one.
“I believe if you know who he is you should be able to figure out who I am.” Nick says with a smile on his face that I don’t like at all. I can’t think of who it might be I just know that he must have some type of powers or why would he be hobnobbing it with God.
“Sorry can’t place you at the moment but back to what you want with me, what is the wager and why me?”
“To answer the second part first we picked your name out of the phone book at random. As to the first part we can’t tell you or it would effect the outcome of the wager.” God said
“Then how can I help if I don’t know what you have wagered on?”
“Look Adam we can’t tell you the nature of the wager just that we have selected you to help us and to further that help we have given you a very special gift.” God said
“What kind of gift?”
“The power to control other minds” Nick said
“Ok so you are going to give me powers to control other minds, I got it you wagered on what I would do with these powers didn’t you?”
“Look kid I got things to do and you are taking up my time, no we didn’t wager on what you would do with them. You can go out and take over the world for all we care just go out and use the powers and eventually the right circumstances will present itself and the wager will be settled,” Nick stated and disapeared.
“Adam my apologies but he has always been hot headed but he is correct, just live your life and use your new powers. Now I will return you to your room and I must be going.”
Next thing you know I’m laying in my bed, in my apartment when a drowsiness suddenly comes over me. Just as I fall back asleep it hits me I know who Nick is and yeah I have to agree with God he always has been hot headed.
I awaken at nine am on a beautiful Sunday morning and go about my usual Sunday routine of trying to find something on TV to watch besides preachers and politicians. As I flip through the channels I think back to that weird dream that I had the night before. Just as I come to the conclusion that I need to get laid if I’m having weird dreams like that instead of some hot babe, out of thin air a piece of paper gently floats down into my lap. I pick it up and there is writing on it, I turn it around and read “I told you last night it wasn’t a dream”. I drop the note and yell out OH MY GOD, just as that happens another note floats down and with a trembling hand I pick it up and read “Exactly”. What a joker God is. Of course yelling oh my god at nine am on a Sunday morning in an apartment building is likely to draw attention and it did. Old Mrs. Fletcher from across the hall came knocking at my door.
“Adam are you alright”
I quickly ran and answered the door “I’m fine Mrs. Fletcher I just got startled by a rat I saw outside my window you wouldn’t believe the size of it.” As Mrs. Fletcher started to drone on about the rat problem in our old apartment building and how the landlord wasn’t doing anything about it, it struck me that if what happened last night was true and I could control other peoples minds I could test it out right now, but how do I use this power?
“By sending your thoughts to who you want to control” I heard in my head. I thought OH MY GOD I’m hearing things in my head.
“Close but not God this time”. I thought then it had to be Nick, “Not him either, I am the judge on who wins this wager and to make sure there is no undo outside interference from either party involved”.
Oh Jesus I thought who could this be when I got my answer. “Exactly”.
I guess like Father like Son then in the humor department and got on with my experiment. I thought to Mrs. Fletcher (you will hop on one foot the entire time you are talking with me but not notice that it is strange). Mrs. Fletcher started hopping on one foot while still carrying on about the rat problem. I thought OH MY then thought better of that thought, then it hit me it was all true, I could control anyone and the possibilities were endless and then I became frightened. I quickly apologized to Mrs. Fletcher for disturbing her and told her I really had to go and good bye and shut the door. I sat down on my couch and thought since these powers are real that means that I really met God and Satan and that they placed a wager on me. Then I really got scared because then I remembered from Sunday school what happened to Job the last time they placed a wager on a what a mortal would do. As I was about to go into a catatonic state from fright a sense of serenity came over me and I looked up to see a man that anyone would recognize if they spent even one minute in a Christian church.
“Be at peace Adam your soul is not at risk in this wager and no other worldly consequences will occur to your loved ones like what happened to Job” Jesus said.
“You mean that I could mentally command someone to jump off a building and kill themselves and I won’t go to hell for it?”
“That is exactly what I mean. Your soul is not being judged, you can use your power for good or evil and for this wager it will not effect the outcome. Now I must be going.”
Well the calmness that he gave me allowed me to come to grips that I basically had great power and while the wager lasted a get out of hell free card. It was time to take my new powers out for a spin.