[Dr. Whestone said,] "Oh, don't thank me yet. Your paralysis will wear off in a few minutes, but in the meantime I have some things to tell you... I am an Immortal. I was born thousands of years ago, before recorded history. People, of course, feared and hunted me, hoping to kill me. I had to flee, always running and hiding for several centuries. But finally, I became aware there were others like me. We met in secret over the years, forming plans for the safety of our kind....We had to experiment with new means of control...."
...
Cuddled and coddled was Josh for days. Warm milk, Gerber's baby food...he hated Gerber's baby food! Finally, he could stand it no longer.
"There's gotta be something else to eat around here!" he yelled.
Jonathan and Stephanie Winters looked at him in absolute shock.
"Oh, you're astonished at my command of language, huh? Here..." Josh raised his right hand and pointed to them. "You will no longer be alarmed. This is perfectly natural."...
..."Good. Now here's the deal," Josh said. "Gerber's baby food is out... From now on, no more crib. I guess I have to keep the walker. And the playpen's fine. But I want CNN on at all times, until I'm ready for bed, which will be around midnight. And I want the latest five issues of Playboy magazine. And the last five issues of Playgirl, too, for that matter, in case this body swings the other way. Please stack them neatly and put them in the corner of my pen."
"Playboys? Playgirls? What are you going to do with those?" Stephanie asked.
"Do I have to spell that out for you? Just get them. And oh, no more warm milk. From now on, you keep my baby bottle filled with cold beer. If anyone asks, we'll say it's apple juice."
...
Rich West couldn't resist his own brand of proselytizing. "Why are you against this panel, Bob?"
"Because homosexuality is an abomination."
"An abomination? Wow, that's harsh. You're calling children of God abominations? What kind of religion is that?" Rich asked.
...
"You know," Johnny said as they walked home, "I think that, since God loves everybody, supposedly, God must be pansexual."
"That's a really cool thought," Kelly said....
"...changing the subject, check out that porn shop over there. We've never been in it. After all this talk about sex and gender, I'd like to check it out!" Johnny said.
"Oh, I don't know..."
"C'mon, Kell, it'll be fun! Think of it as...educational."
"Well, okay, but just for a minute."
Johnny and Kelly entered the porn shop and began to browse. Johnny said, "Hey, look! There's a gay men's section over here."
"Not surprising."
"Hey, look at this one! Pizza Boy--He Delivers!"
...
"Hey, marine," Johnny said to Greg while unfolding an American flag. "Federal troops from the United States of America watched as my people--my mother's people, the Cherokee--suffered and sometimes died on the Trail of Tears. Funny how this flag causes people with dark skin and eyes to suffer throughout the world... I don't like what the U.S. is doing in the world. I'm Cherokee, and I'm going to burn this flag." Johnny took out a lighter.
"Not while I live and breathe," Greg said. "You put that lighter away, or I'm gonna pound you with my fists."
"Yeah, that'd be about typical," Johnny responded. "Just another excuse to beat up on a red man..."
...
Johnny rose from the rubble. His clothes were long gone. Naked Cherokee. Johnny had a wondrous glow about him. Like Siddhartha Gautama, when he walked up and won back the five ascetics in the deer park at Benares. Except there was an important difference. Johnny wasn't enlightened. He was pissed.
Many Eastern cultures say anger is evil and to be avoided. And certainly anger can lead to hatred. So it is a legitimate fear. And our American culture suppresses anger. We don't like to hear it. Malcolm X, Mary Daly, Ward Churchill...we wish they would just shut up.
And yet, our "Western" monotheistic traditions do have a place for righteous anger. Jesus overturns the money tables and takes out a whip. And then you have all those great Hebrew prophets crying out against injustice. They, too, were pissed. Like Amos. "Let justice flow like a mighty river, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream..." Perhaps prophecy isn't about predicting the future. Perhaps prophecy is about opposition to evil. Yeah, even though Johnny was glowing, he wasn't quite like Siddhartha. More like Amos.
Yes. Johnny was angry. Angry like Amos.
...
Johnny lay there for a long time, he didn't know how long. After a while, it grew dark. The stars came out, but Johnny didn't see them. For a long time, he lay with his eyes open, but slowly, slowly, his eyelids began to droop, and finally to close. Then Johnny slept, a naked Cherokee under the stars.