"Paul Di Filippo - Personal Jesus" - читать интересную книгу автора (Di Filippo Paul)

Personal Jesus
Paul Di Filippo

DESPITE ALL ASSURANCES by experts to the con-trary, Shepherd
Crooks suspected that his godPod was defective.

If it were operating as it should, wouldn’t his life be as perfect as the
lives of all the other happy citizens of the world? Wouldn’t his mind and soul
be at peaceful ease? Wouldn’t he exist in a perma-nent state of grace?

Sitting at his kitchen table this bright July morn-ing, a Friday, prior to
leaving for his job at The Sheaf and Swallow, Shepherd studied his godPod
as it sat innocuously on the table.

A white plastic case, big as a pack of cigarettes and stuffed with
quantum-gated hardware, the little box featured absolutely no controls or
readouts, not even a power switch. Accompanying it was a matching
wireless headset—earpiece and microphone—that interfaced with the
godPod through a conventional Bluetooth connection.

There was no way Shepherd could possibly troubleshoot the
godPod. It came from the facto-ry preset and permanently activated. It
drew inexhaustible power from the same zero-point energy that had
alleviated the planet’s energy cri-sis and ushered in a material Utopia to
accompany the near-seamless spiritual paradise engineered by the
godPods. In short, the device was as inscrutable and inviolate as the deity it
contained or channeled.

Shepherd’s godPod had just come back from the manufacturer with a
clean bill of health. He had no recourse other than to accept it as perfect.

That is, unless he chose to do without it entirely.

Which was unthinkable.

So, with a slight nervous twitch of his shoulders, like a horse
shrugging off a fly, Shepherd slid the godPod into his belt holster, and
snugged the headset into his ear.

Almost instantly, Shepherd’s Personal Jesus spoke to him.

“It’s good to be in touch with you again, Shep-herd.”
 Shepherd spoke in the sotto voce tones which everyone employed
with his or her godPod. “I, um—I’m glad to be talking to you again, Jesus.”

“Is anything troubling you at the moment, child?”

“No. Not really.”

“Then I will await your next words to me. Walk in love.”