The Wrong Heaven

by Amy Bonnaffons

“Look,” said Jesus. “Don’t take it the wrong way, what I’m about to say. It’s just my personality. But have you considered the lilies of the field? The birds, and wild beasts? Do they wonder who’s on ‘their side’?” He made air quotes. “I don’t know,” I said. “They don’t,” he said.

“It’s desire, not gravity, that holds the universe together—and desire, not dark energy, that pulls it apart. Outcomes do not respond to our efforts in a linear way; rather, outcomes retroactively reveal the depth and mystery of our desires. My process is nothing more, or less, than a patented conundrum.”

In the obscure dialect region from which Dr. Beláček comes, the same word is used for “conundrum,” “miracle,” and “mistake”;