Flutter

“um, excuse me,” I said, “can i, uh, can i sit here? there… um… there’s only one table in here, so…”

Now that I’m a prophet, I get to eat in the prophet-only dining room, which should mean more privacy, except two of the other prophets–Lilly and Alex, I remembered from earlier–were already here.

“Hmm?” Lilly looked at me. “Oh, of course.”

“thanks.” I pulled out a chair and sat down.

“You’re the one who was talking about helping animals, right?”

I nodded and took a bite of my apple.

“What exactly did you mean by that?” Alex asked, “Conservation? Or making sure people treat their pets right?”

I nodded again.

“Which?”

“Everything.” I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, steadying myself. I don’t really feel comfortable talking to people. It helps if I close my eyes and pretend I’m just talking to myself. “All the animals need our help. Out in the wild, and in people’s homes. When God gave us dominion over the animals, He wanted us to take care of them and keep them safe, and we haven’t been doing a very good job of that.” I opened my eyes.

“You’re right about that.” Alex sighed. “Seems like nobody really cares about any species but themselves.”

I nodded.

“I guess our messages are pretty similar,” Lilly said, “We’re both advocating for better treatment of other species.”

I smiled. I liked their message. Certainly a lot better than Jack’s or Rich’s. Jack was advocating for more bloodshed, something we certainly didn’t need. And Rich… I just had a bad feeling about him. A part of me didn’t quite trust him. “maybe… we could… work together.”

“Sorry, I didn’t quite hear that.”

“oh. it’s… it’s nothing.” I wouldn’t be of much help to them, anyway. I was a terrible prophet. I can hardly even talk to people one-on-one, and prophets have to address huge crowds to spread God’s message. I didn’t understand why God had chosen me, of all people, to spread His message. Surely, He had His reasons, but… “why did he choose me?”

“You have a great message, Flutter,” Alex said, “And I think you’ll make a wonderful prophet. You just need a little confidence, that’s all.”