13.1

You will witness God.

I am a holy man.

Max found himself in freefall, with a head full of questions still far too raw to analyze with any clarity. The problem Shard set drew a curtain across the stage, separating him completely from the other players. It didn’t matter how he tried to distract himself, the blue ringed eyes laughing quietly behind their awful riddle haunted him.

The old man hadn’t simply read his mind. The answers had not even been on his mind when the old man had written them. He’d known the answers before he’d asked the questions. But there was more to it than that – there was Kirsten, that crucial answer.

You hadn’t even thought about her for months!

Mate… that’s uncanny.

The old man knew… before you even made up your mind.

Was it all just a lucky guess?

Had the old man tricked him somehow?

Had he been set up?

Just for a few dollars?

“You will witness God.”

As he wandered around, Max could almost see the imaginary finger pointing directly at him –

You will witness God.

I am a holy man.

There was a confluence of ideas. Max the writer, Max the hero, with God suddenly introduced into the narrative… omnipresent now, lurking behind an invisible veil… to be “witnessed” at some time. But there was still another Max, a boy who shrank before this imaginary finger. This Max found himself secretly wishing he’d prepared himself better for all this by reading up on it before he left home.

You will witness God.

I am a holy man.

It all got down to whether he believed the old man or not. And frankly, for no particular reason, Max had believed him. It wasn’t as if he particularly wanted to – he just did.

But it took him a little time to admit it.

Until then he was doomed to think about it and rethink about it, and think about it again.

You will witness God.

I am a holy man.