Chapter 15
Milton woke up the next day to his alarm. He got dressed and saw Beth munching cereal and swiping at her pad in the kitchen. Milton looked out into the backyard. No androids. The sun was shining. He was tired from the restless night, but maybe now things would start settling down. Maybe the Lucids would get blasted by the police and end the whole thing. He was happy that he got a satisfactory answer to his burning God question. Therefore Principal Stafford would be off of his back because the other students would quit complaining about him and his surveys. Maybe things would start going right. The Thomas household even had a full supply of Zoo Crunch cereal.
As he ate the Zoo Crunch, he had to admit to himself that maybe he had acquired a taste for the boring healthy cereal.
His mom came into the kitchen.
“Hi Mom.” Milton’s happy greeting came out almost sing-songy.
“Wow, that Notuda is really working,” Mrs. Thomas said. “I told you it would help.”
Milton just smiled, knowing full-well that he had not taken the first dose of it.
Milton felt like a new young adult man. Things would be different now. Back to normal. Yep. No more worries about if God was there. Things were going so well that he just wanted to . . . thank God.
So if he wanted to thank God, could he just pray and God would hear him? God certainly must be very mysterious. His ways cannot be the same as humans. Milton felt somehow that God was watching over him. It felt wrong to ignore God unless he needed something from Him. It seemed wrong that God would make the world and make Man, and then just sit back and sees what happens. Was it possible to find out what God wanted him to do? Maybe God would help him in his daily life. What were all of these religions about? It seemed like a lot of stuff people do for religion was real weird. But God made him, so it only seemed right that he wouldn’t ignore God either.
No! Milton thought. He’s going to get into trouble again if he started to explore more questions like that! Just forget it. Besides, if he got involved in a religion, he would be required by the religion to do too much that he didn’t want to, and likely be doing something illegal in the secular haven of Homeland.
Maybe he could just talk to the Lucids, or Randy about religion. Definitely keep Principal Stafford out of it. He is the last person Milton would ever want to talk to about it. He wondered about his own sanity and his persistence in questioning things that would get him into trouble. They always said people who were into religion were insane.
*******
The other students still looked upon Milton with suspicion. It would take awhile, if ever, to live down his reputation as a weirdo. He understood that his schoolmates were afraid of him confronting them with more unpredictable personal difficult questions. At least Randy Klosterman still would sit with him in the school cafeteria at lunch time.
Milton was aghast when he saw Randy. He looked like a mess. Randy had bruises all over his face. He looked like he was in pain. It didn’t help that his green hair now showed natural colored roots. “Who did that?!” Milton asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Randy said.
“I am worried about it!” Milton said. “Who?!”
“Don’t say anything. I’m serious. It was Blaze and his pals.”
Milton said, “I thought they knew better than to mess with us.”
“If you remember,” Randy said, “Kevin the Custodian told Blaze not to mess with you. He never said anything about me.”
“Aw, man. Sorry,” Milton said.
“That’s okay,” Randy said. “Anyways, I ain’t gonna say I won the fight, but I definitely ruined Blaze’s day for him.”
“Really?” Milton said with a smile.
“Oh yeah. Check out his ugly face the next time you see him.”
“I’ll be sure to do that,” Milton said.
Randy said, “I did enough damage that he won’t come looking for me again. Anyway, tell me why you are in so tight with those androids? What power do you have over them?”
“You know about that?”
“Duh. I saw them in your back yard.”
Milton gritted his teeth and looked around to see who could hear him, which was only Randy. “The Lucid Series androids think I am important because I believe that God created the Universe.”
“That’s it?”
“Yep, that’s about it. They are helping me, and the humans are against me. The androids think that science, or the truth is in danger of being lost because of the theory of evolution, which they say is impossible. And they did say something about ‘my work’. I’m not sure what they mean by that. It must be some kind of android talk.”
Randy said, “So you are leading a robot revolution?”
“Not really.”
Randy said, “I don’t really know anyone else who believes in God. At least you don’t hear them going around talking about it.”
Milton said, “If no one else believes, that doesn’t make them right. I want to do what God wants, not what everyone else wants. Besides, I never planned on telling everyone what I think. But it just keeps coming up.”
Randy said, “What if God wants you to so some weird stuff like skin cats alive and not want you to do some normalish stuff like go to the holoplex?”
Milton wasn’t hearing Randy because he noticed Norma Blanchester sitting with some other girls.
“What are you looking at?” Randy asked.
“Nothing,” Milton said, putting his head down.
“Liar. You got it for Norma Blanchester.”
“So?”
Randy said, “Go talk to her.”
“About what? I mean, the last time I spoke to her she took off like I was an automaton. She probably hates me.”
“How do you know? Where did you get your facts?”
“I don’t have time for your games. We gotta go.” Milton decided it was irrational to think Norma wouldn’t dislike him for no reason. Although she might dislike him for several legitimate ones.
After lunch, Milton looked at his personal device and saw a message from Sleepy; Milton, come to the headquarters after school. If this is not satisfactory, I will come to your house.
“No!” Milton wrote back, “i will be at headquarters do not come to house!!!!!!!”