Corrections

The windows were rattling when I woke up this morning. Well, I thought they were. All I can remember from my dream is that she bit me with her tooth. I felt the pain, then I went back to sleep and dreamed.

The baby lay naked in the forest surrounded by wolves. Jēḍu appeared and picked up the infant. The wolves snarled but did not attack. He walked among them as they parted to let him proceed. He carried the infant out of the forest and began walking toward the nearest town.

He came upon a graveyard where a woman was weeping beside the grave of her young daughter. He came up to the woman and handed her the infant. After a moment of stunned disbelief, her tears of sorrow became tears of joy as she clutched the baby to her chest.

Upon entering the town, Jēḍu came upon a prostitute standing on the side of the street. She was tired, cold and wondering if there was anything else beyond her pitiful life. He gave her his coat and took her to a home he knew would take her in.

Jēḍu walked into an alley where a homeless man was sleeping. He extended his hand, and the man took it as he arose. The man briefly smiled. Jēḍu put his arm around the man as they walked to the street. He took the man into a shelter and then left as the rain began to fall.

Jēḍu walked into the assembly hall. Everyone had left for the evening. He saw that the floor needed sweeping. He took a broom and began working until all was clean again.

Jēḍu walked into a tavern late at night where many men were drinking. He was confronted by a belligerent man who pulled out a knife and demanded his money.

Jēḍu said, "What does money bring you but a desire for more until you are so depraved that you would kill me for what little I have." Then Jēḍu tore out the man's eyes and as he screamed in pain, Jēḍu told him to beg on the streets if he still craved money.

Jēḍu left the city and began walking down a road into the country.

Along came a young girl on a bicycle. "Hello mister," she said.

He turned to her and said "Hello, what dimension are we in?"

"Huh?" she said. "What are you talking about mister?"

Jēḍu replied, "Now that I have coalesced into this dimension, I do not know where I am. But my mission remains the same. I've been in so many dimensions, I get confused sometimes."

After a pause, he said to the girl, "Stop for a minute."

She did as he asked.

From his back pocket he pulled out a playing card and a clothes pin.

He said, "I'm going to motorize your bike." He used the clothes pin to attach the playing card to one of the bike's spokes. "Try it out," he said. "Now you're on a chopper."

She pedaled up and down the road and the bike made a clicking sound somewhat like an engine. She was thrilled. "I've got my own chopper," she screamed. "Thanks mister!" Then she sped away.

Jēḍu continued walking. He saw farmland ahead.

A farmer who was tilling his fields noticed him and paused for a moment. Then he walked over to Jēḍu and from the other side of a fence and said, "You don't look like an ordinary man. Are you really a man or are you something else?"

Jēḍu replied, "I am sure I am not a man, but I don't know what else I could be."

The farmer said, "Well, you could be a demon, a spirit, a ghost. I don't know."

Jēḍu said, "Whatever I am, I am destined to roam the earth, to look into the souls of others, and to make corrections."

"Corrections?" asked the farmer.

Jēḍu said, "I don't know what they are for. I just do them and then move on until another encounter comes along. I do not question my fate. I embrace it without knowing who I am or why I exist."

"You must be lonely," said the farmer. "Are there others like you?"

"Yes," Jēḍu replied. "There are many others like me, and yes, I am very lonely. By the way, that pregnant cow in your barn needs your immediate care."

Jēḍu walked away as fog descended upon the fields. He looked over his shoulder and said to the farmer, "There is still so much to be done. Perhaps some day I will be released."

As he continued down the road, Jēḍu saw an old man with a walking stick coming his way. Jēḍu stopped as the man approached him.

The man looked at him for a long time, and finally said, "Many years ago I knowd someone looked like you. He came into our town from nowhere, and then things began achangin'— mostly for the good, but some changes were terrible. No one knew who he was or why he came. And just as quick, he left."

"You be like him, eh?" The old man asked.

Jēḍu replied, "It seems so."

The old man asked, "You comin' back into our town like the last one?"

Jēḍu replied, "I go where I am called upon to go."

"Where you from anyway", asked the old man.

Jēḍu replied, "I know very little of my past. As best as I can remember, I was a motherless child raised and trained by a being much different than me. I wandered throughout the land with few memories to help me along the way."

"I do remember walking along a knoll in early spring. Fresh grass was beginning to emerge from the snow covered ground. The smell was intoxicating and I continue to remember it with great joy even as we speak."

"I remember seeing big birds flying across the sky when the stars started falling. That's when I was sent here."

The old man shook his head and walked past Jēḍu. Jēḍu continued down the road.

After walking for several hours, Jēḍu came to the forest where he had first appeared. He followed a trail for awhile, then sat down to rest. The wolves in the forest caught his scent and came to where he was resting. He looked at the alpha male and gestured for it to come to him. It lay down by his side. The other members of the pack approached him, sniffed him, and then lay down. Jēḍu began stroking the back of the alpha male. With each time he stroked the wolf's back, he began fading until finally he was no longer there.