by Dymphna Morrissey

Created on: July 31, 2011

God in his all-knowing omniscience had decided to take away the pain of dying.  He had done this for his own reasons, which men cannot fathom or understand.  Naturally, nobody really questioned God's decision on this matter thinking that their own questioning might change the mind of God.  It was good news; it was welcomed by all but a few masochists who were determined to find a new way to inflict pain on themselves.

God took away the psychological terror of death and the physical pain that usually accompanies it.  Nobody lived in fear of terrorists or ax murderers or serial killers.  Nobody felt their cancer eating away their flesh.  When people were shot or hit by cars they felt the same as when they took a stroll along the beach.  Part of the terror was gone because their was no physical pain and part of the fear was gone because it was now more probable that there was a God.

The suicides started to occur almost immediately.  A group of handsome upper-class youths at the mall jumped five floors to their death.  There was a seventy-five percent chance that after a break-up the dumped person would commit suicide.  Third graders who got an eighty-six on their math tests took a loaded pistol and shot themselves in front of the teacher.  Soon these events ceased to be reported on the news because they were so common-place.

War became fun.  Soldiers laughed and shot themselves and others hanged themselves off the tree branches within the visible presence of the others.  Some said gleefully, "His neck cracked funny!  See what your neck sounds like!"  As the enemy approached others ran into the bullets hoping to be commemorated for their "great courage".  The terror of war was gone, but not the tedium.  As a result seventy-five percent of the soldiers were dead before the first battle.  They saw the war as something that would last interminably; with so many soldiers dying new replacements were needed along with new weapons and new uniforms.  If they could just stop, they might just stop the war, so why didn't they?

It was hard to explain.  Men came home to find their wives with their heads stuck in ovens.  Some laughed at the sight and others promptly hanged themselves.  Their children came home to see their parents dead.  They sometimes followed in their parent's footsteps, but more often they waited a bit longer until they had too much homework or were deprived of the recreation their father's paycheck afforded them.  Then they hanged themselves due to their boredom.

Within one year, the world population had been reduced by three-fourths.  Those few who were alive pondered God's reasons for this change, but could find none.

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