Part Twenty-Three
ISLAND FAITHS

Barbara entered the Island Faiths section smiling, noting that some of the innocent little Islanders had climbed up on the fish mobiles and were enjoying the view. She expected them to ask her to sing “Twinkle, twinkle little star,” or tell them their favorite fairy tale about the princess and the hibiscus.
“If you are an all-seeing, all-mighty, and all-powerful god why do you let so much evil into the storeroom?” demanded the Hudoq Mask, flapping his ears vigorously.
“What do you mean?” Barbara was surprised at such a complex question in this section.
“As a god, you have supreme power and no limitations, so why can’t you give us wings?” asked Fe’e, the ancient Samoan squid god. Barbara hadn’t told them about wings and didn’t know how they’d found out.
“You can be everywhere at the same time,” stated the Cold Mask with cold contempt, “So why haven’t we seen you in weeks?”
They began shouting angrily, some in Old Church Slavonic, and a confused Barbara turned to leave, but Manasa Devi, the goddess of snakes, stopped her.
“Wait. ‘Hegelian dialectic is temporal in its nature, and philological in its nurturing.'” She held up a copy of René Greenwood’s The Psychology of Time that was — or had been until recently — in a bookcase upstairs.
“Explain — with appropriate references to Nietzsche. And Hegel, of course.”
Barbara was clueless, of course. But, being the supreme god of the storeroom, she’d had no need to explain anything until now and wasn’t about to start. She grabbed the book and went into Attack Mode.
“How did you get hold of that book?”
“A Traveler gave it to us.”
“He flew in. He had wings,” supplied another enviously.
“Wings? Was it the Archangel Michael?”
The Handi laughed with a cynicism worthy of St. Jude. “No, but getting close.”
Barbara changed from Attack Mode to Divine Sorrow. She looked at each one in turn, which made them squirm, as she knew it would. “I suppose you’ve all read the book to be able to ask questions like that. But remember it was I who bought you at thrift stores and saved you from the Dumpster.” They shuddered at the word, but she continued, “And you’re attacking me, your god, who made this beautiful fish world for all of you.”
That did it. They muttered sorry, and some added “O Great One,” which was kind of gratifying. She decided it was high time she visited Bible and Beyond to find out who the Traveler was. She was certain that he came from there.