by Jonathan Pinnock
By five o’clock, all the equipment was crated up and ready for auction.
“It’s time to go now, sir,” said Prendergast.
“I know,” said Fothergill. “I know.”
Prendergast looked at the old man, sitting alone in the centre of the laboratory, cradling a box on his lap.
“It must be a sad day for you,” he said.
“Why so?”
“Losing all this, I mean.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about that. I’ll be fine. Heaven awaits! Jesus explained it all long ago.”
Prendergast looked embarrassed. “But you had a fortune, sir. You were one of the richest men on the planet. What made you fritter it all away on this…this mad folly of yours?”
“Oh, you are so young, aren’t you?” said Fothergill, with a sympathetic shake of the head. “Listen to me. Once upon a time I was indeed a very rich man. I could have anything I wanted. I had my pick of the most beautiful women in the world. I threw wild, lavish parties. I entertained presidents and danced with princesses. But something was missing until I found Jesus. Then, when I embraced the Lord, everything made sense.”
For a moment, a smile seemed to absorb the whole of the man’s face. Then he continued with his story.
“But one thing troubled me,” he said. “When I found my Saviour, I studied the Bible seriously for the first time in my life. Then I read what Jesus said in Matthew 19:24, that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And, as I have said, I was a very rich man.”
“Er…right,” said Prendergast, wondering where on earth this was going.
“So I decided there and then to invest everything I owned into building the most advanced nanobiotechnology laboratory in the world.”
“Why?” Prendergast looked puzzled.
“I would have thought that was obvious, young man!” said Fothergill. “My aim was to engineer a camel that could pass through the eye of a needle. If I could do that, then a rich man such as I was then could indeed enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Fothergill glanced around, and beckoned Prendergast to come closer. Then he opened the box. Inside, Prendergast saw a needle and a magnifying glass.
“Hold that magnifying glass,” said Fothergill. “Now look closely. See the miniature camel? Watch it walk through the eye of this needle! Giddy-up! Giddy-up!” He gave another beatific smile, and leaned in towards Prendergast’s ear. “I have a whole herd of these hidden away,” he whispered.
Prendergast shook his head, and motioned to the medical team to come over.
“Look after him,” he said to them. “He’s quite harmless, really.”
© 2009 Jonathan Pinnock
Original fiction debuting at Residential Aliens.
Tags: flash fiction, Jonathan Pinnock, speculative
[...] there’s an arresting title for a story, eh? And it’s now up at Residential Aliens. A curious little vignette of misguided religious obsession. Or something like that. I do like the [...]
Nice idea, to take the solution to the scripture literally and then to kick the feet from under us with the twist at the end. Well done.