The Voice of Reclamation

 “Evander, what do you see?” a voice asked.

“I see evil all around me and there’s not much I can do about it. Enter me, and have your way.” Evander responded.

“I will, but first you have to solve a problem. The eye sees what it wants, but fails to see what’s good at times. If you see evil, then your mind must want good so let’s continue. Two people are left alone at night, a male and a female. The male is well studied, yet the female is broken. With all of his fine gems and achievements, the male forces himself on the female only to feel blood flowing out of his mouth. Defending herself, she stabs the male and receives some prison time. How did she end up in the room Evander?” the voice asked.

Evander looks down at his feet, “I don’t know.”

“Now I will tell a tale of the rich and the dumb. Never assume while I’m talking okay, or surely I will push you off of the ledge and you will die a thousand deaths. Two men discover a pot of gold and become wealthy, an old fool falls in front of their fortune after his wife tries to divorce him for being poor. He tells a priest that his wife was possessed by a demon and tries to sue the two men for their gold after breaking his leg on their property. Whose fault was it Evander?” the voice asked.

Evander remains quiet.

“Whose fault was it Evander?” the voice asked again.

Evander eases his way off of the ledge and decides to deal with his own problems. Convinced that he was a good person he starts reading books that he believes will feed his conscience mind. He feels that these books will change him. He begins to fall in love with biblical theology and biblical stories only to find out that the physical world is filled with tricks and voices that never go away.

“Whose fault is it Evander? The voice asked again.

“It was my fault, go away. Please! It was my fault, and I’m sorry, I will live with my faults, I’m sorry. Whoever you are, whoever that is talking to me, I cannot undo my wrongs, but I can make the future better. I’m sorry. If you are God or the devil himself, I’m sorry.” Evander said begging for the voice to go away.

For a second it became quiet. Evander then heard sirens. Emergency services along with police had his apartment complex surrounded. Someone dialed 911 when he was on the ledge. He rushed to hide all of his alcohol and drugs but it was too late. 

Eyeing his gun, he heard the voice again, “You should just kill yourself now Evander. You’ll never recover from this one, it’s back to the jailhouse for you.”  

Surrendering to the authorities, Evander lived the rest of his life fighting with his conscience mind only to get out of jail ten years later in the same position, but this time it was karma he had to face.

Now out of jail, he found himself roaming aisles at the store and an old case that he was involved in years before soon caught up to him because a member of the victim’s family spotted him and chased him through a busy intersection. Running through the street, trying to save his own life, he ends up getting hit by a car.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Evander screams while waking up in a hospital bed.

Now paralyzed, sitting in front of a bright TV screen alone in a nursing facility, Evander refused to give up on life. Feeling a form of vindication, the victim’s family celebrated his downfall. Now consuming television lessons and reading every book, he suffered slowly in the thoughts of man’s law and intellectual displays while trapped in his own body.

“I have to do something right,” he kept saying to himself. 

Thinking, but suffering while unable to move, he told one of the nurses to take a picture of him and take every dime he had to show the world what had become of him, a once most wanted man. The nurse took his advice, and Evander became the face and consequences that everyone feared.

Now feeling his own vindication, he battled through it all and died alone in a nursing facility. He’d done some terrible things while living, only to face the voice on the other side. 

“So how was your life on earth? Do you want to try again?” The voice asked.

Evander, who was now just a spirit, finally stood face to face with the voice.

It was himself. He’d spent his entire life fighting with himself.

Dying, and entering another life, he found a picture of his face on every billboard.

And they all read: “Don’t be like me.”

The nurse followed his instructions and after 100 men followed Evander’s message and lived a better life than him, his soul was finally laid to rest.

He was finally allowed to entertain the company of angels.

He had become the face that haunted the minds of the conscience living.

As his flesh became dirt an apple tree grew on his grave 2,000 years later and his last living relatives ate from it to survive a bloody war. His voice led them to it.

The End.