The Vibrant Red Psalms

The church of Nechaero was built into the side of Mt. Chsilmóch. To give a more complete picture, the whole city of Nechaero rested on the rocky slopes of the mountain. Its rivers flowed into the sprawling waterways of the city. The first of those waterways were built many hundreds of years ago. Their continual development and expansion gave rise to the city’s notorious flowing infrastructure. It attracted lots of tourists, though the liveliest time of the year was behind us now.

The church was built on a big square lot that was excavated out of the east face of the mountain. It was, in my opinion, a rather strange location. By the looks of the topography around the excavated lot, it couldn’t have been any small amount of stone that was hauled away to clear up the site. The rear wall of the lot rose nearly as high as the church itself, and on either side of the lot there were similar walls that followed the slope of the mountain, truncated at the east end of the lot. All of that which is to say, the amount of stone that was excavated must have been around half the cubic volume of the lot.

I knew next to nothing about construction, but surely there existed a more efficient location somewhere on this mountain, right?

Furthermore, while you’d typically expect churches to go east so as to let the morning sun into the sanctuary most directly, the church of Nechaero’s sanctuary was half-embedded into the mountain, and sunlight came in from behind you when you faced the altar in the sanctuary. Indeed, it was not when you entered the church that you would see the sun, but when you exited it.

Such were the pointless yet perplexing observations that I made on that morning. I considered them while I sat on a bench that extended from the south wall of the lot. The people cleared out after the morning service was over, and now there was nobody in sight save for myself. The wall’s shadow divided me in half.

Indeed, there was nobody in sight save for myself. Of course, that was before the girl exiting the church sat down next to me. She wore a bright red long-sleeved blouse and a pleated black miniskirt. Round, golden, wire-rimmed glasses adorned her face. Her hair fell below her shoulders, it was dull and black like mine. She rested her flute case across her lap, and her name was...

“I’m Armi ma Assirénea. You? Also, this weather is quite decent, isn’t it?”

“My name is Théo mu Akassiogi. And I would rather it be raining.”

Such were the first words exchanged between us two, who sat against the south wall of the lot. Then I said nothing more, so Armi asked me a question. 

“What did you think of the Priest’s story?”

I looked at the blue sky. There was nothing there. So I responded to her.

“It’s trite. But Priest Ibaramoth still finds these stories like a pig sniffing out truffles.”

“Like a pig sniffing out truffles, you say?”

She pondered for a moment, looking to the sky, before turning to me with a smile.

“Could it be that you, Théo, cannot see God?”

Hm? Was this girl suggesting that I, Théo, did not believe in God? Though I go to church every week? How very peculiar of her to say something like that, especially to somebody whom she just met.

“How very peculiar of you to say something like that, Armi! Especially to somebody whom you’ve just met. I’ll have you know that I go to church every week.”

I actually don’t even go to church every month. But that was irrelevant.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean it like that. Hehe. What I meant to say was, could it be that your eyes are not capable of perceiving the lord himself flying around and showering his blessings upon his people?”

What? Was that what I was supposed to be using my eyes for?

“I wouldn’t hope so, because that’d make you crazy.”

Okay.

“Anyways, what I actually meant to ask was, does God make you happy?”

I gazed into her eyes, and they were amber like fresh honey. I gazed at my reflection, scrutinising the darkness, trying to find my own eyes. I answered her question.

“God didn’t make me happy. That’s why God doesn’t make me happy.”

“Oh, nice wordplay, even while you’re admitting to something so pitiful!”

She gave a small round of applause.

“Though, if God doesn’t make you happy, then what does?”

I looked out at the empty stone lot.

“Nothing.”

“Then why are you still alive?”

Sunlight shone in the corner of my eye.

Well, with that said, what exactly was it that I took for granted?

“If I had to try to pinpoint something that I take for granted, I would say something like ‘my friends,’ or more broadly, ‘my community.’ Or, maybe, it’s that I still have enough of a heart inside me to follow in the way of God. At the very least, the bad things that have happened to me are only caused by myself. I’m not an unfortunate person.”

Armi let out a small sigh.

“Hm, how do I put it? Don’t think that just because there’s a reason behind everything, there exists an objective world. Objectivity might as well be something that cannot exist in this world. God knows, and humans will never know while we’re still alive. Maxims that we tout amongst ourselves are about as close as any of us can get to finding a collective truth. Although we have our scriptures, they just end up being grounds for disagreements.”

I considered her long-winded words.

“So, to speak of those reasons that I’m still alive which I’ve taken for granted, they’re principles that are essentially irrational and have been spread throughout our community over the ages... Is that so?”

“Well, yes, but also, no. Our principles are subjective, but they’re anything besides irrational. More importantly, you didn’t pick up on my acrostic! The first letter of each sentence I said earlier spells out a word.”

“D-o-g-m-a.”

Damn, she was good.

“Anyhow, my point was to say that we humans live on because of our shared dogma of happiness. Isn’t that nice?”

Now, sunlight filled the stone lot of the church of Nechaero. The time was nearly noon, and I hadn’t eaten since last night. Of course, that was to be expected of somebody like me, a penniless pauper who spent his time talking to high school girls instead of finding a job.

“Hm, I’m feeling a bit peckish. Aren’t you? Let’s go downtown for some brunch! My treat.”

How delightful. Must be God giving me his patronage.

If not, well, keep on rollin’.