The Discovery of Heaven

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— Can I have a moment?

— What is it?

— Mission accomplished. The matter's settled.

— What matter?

— Oh, forgive me. The most important matter of all. The major problem.

— The major problem? What are you talking about?

— The testimony.

— But of course! Good heavens, how terrible! One devotes oneself full-time to the essential questions, one focuses all one's energies on them, and at a certain moment one simply forgets them, or deals with them in a trice.

— Perhaps you should start delegating a little more.

— Perhaps you should be more aware of your place when someone confides in you. Delegate more! You still don't seem to understand what's hanging over us. Why do you think this project was set up? Tell me, how long have you been wording on this file?

— Over seventy years in human time.

— Tell me about it.

— Where shall I begin?

— You're the best judge of that. First tell me briefly about the prelude.

— I've seldom had to deal with such a complicated program. Thank God we generally let things run their own course, and in earlier assignments I had far more time to play with. However, because for some reason the matter had to be dealt with by the end of the millennium, I had four generations at most to come up with someone who could carry out the mission. The usual procedures were no good at all on such short notice. Normally, of course, we could have given the mission to any Spark we liked, but that would have been pointless. The problem was that if he was to be our envoy, he would have to remember the mission once he was in a body of flesh and blood — that is, he would have to be capable of hitting on the outrageous idea and, furthermore, have the strength of will and courage to execute it.

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