Eventually, out of a moment’s silence, John said –

“This is really getting to you, isn’t it?”

“It’s… just a lack of sleep.”

“Nightmares or dreams?

“Dreams.”

It was true, it was getting to him. The idea of the Regeneration was becoming obsessive to the President. He still wasn’t sure what Shard and the sadhus expected of him. There seemed to be no direction at all! What was he supposed to do… make a speech?

“On Christmas day we are all going to conduct a little experiment…

“We are going to invite God to visit earth.”

You’d be ridiculed, immediately laughed out of office!

The pain of rejection would be… unbearable!

“Don’t worry,” John said. “You’ll be alright.”

“Of course I will but… at the moment I feel quite vulnerable. It’s not like I have a clear picture of what I’m doing with all this. I feel I could easily make a big mistake here.”

“Well Hunter… ” John said, patting his friend on the shoulder. “You’ve never made one of them yet!”

“Hoh!” the President responded with a wry grin. “Like everyone else, I’ve made plenty of mistakes.”

“Oh yes… but no really big ones. Come on… let’s have a look at these films. Let’s see what they’ve got.”

The President slid off the stool with steely resignation. He’d decided days ago that he would watch the films. He felt a need to do that, at least, to put his mind at ease… and perhaps get a little sleep at night.

“O.K. – let’s go.”