Flutter

Confidence?

It’s not that I lack confidence. I know I’m capable of a lot of things, just… not this. Prophets need to proclaim the Word of God in front of millions of people. There’s just no way I can do that.

But I have to. God chose me for the holiest of duties, and I can’t let Him down. If I reject my duty, the Church will rip my wings off and nail me to a wall, upside-down, for the rest of my life.

“Tell me something, Flutter,” Alex said.

I looked up.

“You don’t want to be a prophet, do you?”

“…”

“Neither do we.” He sighed. “I’m cool with making the world a better place, but if I’m going to devote my life to the greater good, it should be my choice. True devotion can’t be forced. And if you try, you just strip it of all meaning.”

“But… but it’s our duty.”

He was right, though. I didn’t want to be a prophet. I wanted to serve God, of course, but not as a prophet. I just wanted to protect His creations. Something that I could do on my own, without having to talk to people. That’s why I tried to keep my destiny a secret. To make sure nobody found out I’d been chosen as a prophet. I had it all planned out. I’d still do my part, still listen to God and write down everything He says, but no public speaking. No publicity. Just… just write it down in a book, keep it safe, and one day, after the book is filled, I’d leave it at a holy site, for someone else to find. They could tell the world that God wrote it all directly. The Word still gets out, just with a slight delay. I’d told God my plan, and he’d said it was okay.

But it didn’t work. Father Colin found out about my book, and he told the whole school that I’d been chosen. And now I need to be a full prophet.

I guess God had okayed my plan because He knew it wouldn’t work out like that, anyway.

“Uh… so, you’ve met God, too, I guess….”

“Um. Yeah.” Lilly glanced at Alex briefly. “Of course. I mean, He gave us our message.”

“I was just wondering… you’re not going to tell people the details, are you?”

“Uh…” Lilly hesitated. “People are probably going to want to know what it was like.”

“Yeah,” Alex said, “We gotta tell them about the… um… how commanding His voice was and… you know, His marvelous form and…”

“Commanding voice? Marvelous form? You–that couldn’t be further from what I–” I blinked as a little vision started coming in. “Wait a second. You never really met Him, did you? You’re not real prophets.” I closed my eyes, focusing on the vision. “You’re… you’re not even–” I stared at Alex. “You’re a pagan.”