He would let Lenny’s speech writers prepare whatever they wanted him to say, and meanwhile he would be writing the speech that he actually would make. The shining man would tell him what to say in it.
INTERLUDE ELEVEN
Special to the New York Times, Oct. 3
Today the Works of Man Museum unveiled its newest acquisition amidst a stormy protest of the nation’s most eminent art critics, who revile the statue with one voice. Palizzo’s nude, entitled, St. Diane, they say is pornographic, vile, hideous, has no redeeming merits, is crassly commercial, a return to the stultifying conformism the early Catholic Church demanded of artists over a thousand years ago. The statue is that of a nude woman straddling a relief map of the United States. One of her hands clutches her genital area, the other is pressed against her breast, and while improbably long hair obscures both hands, the rapture on her face and the pose in general ore suggestive….
Oct. 30
An uneasy silence lies aver the Works of Man Museum tonight following the worst riots witnessed in New York City in over a decade. Slowly the pieces are starting to fall into places as the laborious task of sorting rumor from fact continues. Dr. Wilford Depuy, Director of the Bureau for Maintaining Serenity and Peaceful Coexistence among the. inhabitants of the city, states that the cause of the riots now appears to be rooted in the effect of the “miracle” that three women claimed to have witnessed at the “shrine” of St. Diane. The women claim that they were visited by St. Diane in the spirit as they neared the statue, after waiting in line for over six hours. The visitation afflicted them with hysterical catatonia. As with most hysterical manifestations, this was contagious, and people started to collapse in the museum, then in the street as they waited to gain entrance. The rumor spread rapidly then that the MSPC forces were using riot gas on the people without cause, and there was panic that spread throughout the night and into the following day….
Oct. 31
Replicas of St. Diane are being offered throughout the city, throughout the nation in all sizes, for all prices. Some of them are gold-plated, others cast in the crudest plaster, but all are selling. Again and again “miracles” are being reported by the owners of the statuettes, and in churches where large copies have been installed, doctors are on round-the-clock duty to minister to the stricken….
Rome, UPI, Dec. 17
Italian longshoremen continue to picket the docks here and violence mounts as the nine-day-old strike spreads. Leaving their jobs today were the public transportation unions, the telephone company employees, and the garbage collectors. It is an open secret in Rome that the strikers are being encouraged by the Vatican, and nightly long lines form at various churches and cathedrals where the workers are fed, and receive allotments of food to take home to their families. It is rumored that martial law will be declared within two days if the workers refuse to return to their jobs. The dock area is already a malodorous health hazard, officials report, and with the garbage collection halted, and the worsening conditions brought on by the prolonged drought and summer heat, all Rome will be endangered by disease and fire.
The strike originated when it was learned that aboard the U.S.S. Conover there were fifteen million replicas of the infamous Palizzo, St. Diane….
Chapter Eighteen
“HERE they come,” Merton said, watching the parade on a screen no bigger than a postage stamp. The usual cloud cover hung over the city, dirty cumulus clouds forming in the midst of the blanket of smog that never dispersed, so that there were columns of deeper yellow-gray than the background, as if a mad architect had decided to hold up the smog ceiling with these whirling unstable materials.
The parade was being watched by millions in the city, and hundreds of millions on the entire planet. Many of the viewers didn’t believe in the Star Child at all. It was a myth that the U.N. had created for its own reasons. Others believed exactly what Obie had said about the Star Child: originally damned, he had been converted and was the agent through which Earth could be saved. Most of them had no opinion, but were curious, or watching the 3D sets because that was what one did.
The parade was long, with each nation represented in national costumes, with national bands and marching corps. Overhead the sky was filled with U.N. ships of every description, taking the extraordinary precautions that had been deemed necessary for this event.
Lenny had been horrified when he learned that Johnny was to address the assembly in person. From the start they had agreed that he would remain in his hideaway to make the worldwide telecast, but arguments had arisen. He could be a ringer. Anyone could be put before the cameras and the world wouldn’t know the difference. He had to appear in person.
The parade was on Fifth Avenue when the clouds began to descend. Leading off had been the Amsterdam dancers, then the Angola band, followed by the Australian aborigines in native costume, and in the middle was the bubble that shielded Johnny from the crowds, but exposed him to view. He looked frightened, as he was by the claustrophobic effect of the buildings and the millions on millions of people. Such numbers had never been real before, but here they were, all touching, packed together in a mass that was a blur of flesh colors and gaudy plastics. He should have refused. He wouldn’t be able to say a word. He felt like crying then, or fainting. A heart attack. He could manage a heart attack and be taken back to the quiet of the estate. He could make his debut more slowly, not like this, not with millions all at once…. Lightning suddenly sparkled, crackling and snapping, between the towers and peaks of the buildings, and there was a roll of thunder that shook the bubble in which he rode. He shivered. He was very pale, but managed to lose more color.
Lightning streaked again, and in the U.S. Meteorology Building a weatherman frowned and pressed his communicator button: Thirty seconds later he was talking with his chief forecaster, who was reading information as it came from the computer.
The meteorologist then put through a priority call to the chief of security in charge of the parade and informed him that the storm that was then turning day into night was artificial.
The cloud that was sinking hovered over the bubble, casting it into deep shadows. More lightning, and then the cloud swooped and when it rose again, there was no bubble to be seen. The cloud began to rise fast. Hovercraft darted at it and fell to the ground, creating panic among the people. A voice was in the air then, Obie’s voice, everywhere.
“I am the Voice, the Power, the Strength of God. I am the Voice that God has chosen to use. You who believe in God’s power, fall to your knees so that God will not strike you down.” There was a moment of almost complete silence before the bedlam was raised again. People were trying to run away, but they couldn’t move. The parade had come to a halt with the lowering of the cloud and the attack of the hovercraft on it. Throughout the world people were watching the scene on 3D or conventional, outmoded televisions, and there was stunned disbelief everywhere. Fighters were scrambled, and they too fell back to the ground. Then the windows started to break. Everywhere in the area of the parade windows exploded with cracks of noise, or bangs, or soft popping tinkles. Half the people were on their knees protecting their heads. and those left standing were being knocked down, or pulled down by others. The UNEF were hemmed in so tightly that they couldn’t move, and they hacked their way through the bodies as if they were a dense jungle.