Apocalypse of Jude

The sun’s death falls spectacularly in through the windowed terrace of the self-same restaurant Mae and her mother dined in just the night before. The ocean soaks up the sun’s glow while clouds robe it in splendour. The effect comes streaming in, encircling tables filled with guests awaiting the banquet. A man stands from his table and glides to the shallow stairs rising to the bar. Halfway up he turns, open before him the sea of faces. His voice lifts sonorously, conducting authority around the elliptical room.

“Tonight we are here to celebrate romance recaptured. Life among the vineyards in the arms of seven towering peaks, the clean cool stream of birdsong in the glow of the early evening, and freedom from the conventional suburbs but with the security and history of an estate stretching back for centuries. Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to a way of life perfected, and the official inauguration of Seventh Peak Golf and Country estate.
Around the world we are seeing the rising growth of gated villages in which tranquillity, natural ordered beauty, a sense of community and honest returns on investment are being returned to people. Estates like ours stand as medieval castles in a world of hostility, offering personal security in ways others can’t offer.

“Of all my years in real estate, the most valuable thing I have learnt is never to underestimate the value people place in their security. People will go to great lengths to get the best they can for their families. This town, I am proud to say, is one of those lengths, and our estate merely an added attraction to this utmost of lengths.

“Tonight you are all here as sponsors to ensuring that this way of life that is everything you’ve grown up with and more is being protected. Within our sanctuary, there will be no walls, only open fronts onto superb golf greens and greater neighbourliness and friendliness. Our vision is for a move back to community life, here with a golfing theme. And from this community setting we hope to see a greater expression of community living coming to the fore.

“But more than anything, our vision is that our estate will be a place that will give your soul the right to breathe. Tonight, on Christmas Eve, you are seeing the fruition of a long-term vision that has for many years been burning inside of me. For here is a place where you will be able to come and be freed from the world and be able to look into yourself and find your soul, while daily being soothed by beauty around you and ensuring that you get the best of what God has to offer. Let us then toast to our peace in this season of peace and goodwill.”

He raises a glass of champagne, the floor below him rising from its seat to join him in toast. Then he glides away down the stairs before the welling, reverent applause to his seat at the head of the table at which Mae sits.

She feels nauseated at her father’s oratorio, and still uncertain whether to believe what Caul told her as true. But more than anything else, she is grateful that her back is to Gary sitting across the room with Janice. Waiters filter in, bringing food to each table as the wine and chatter begin to flow. Behind Mae the shrill voice of a woman penetrates her mind such that she can’t keep it out.

“Last Sunday, the Anthonys invited me to dinner to enjoy the beauty of a hot gammon ham. And young Gary Stetson was there. Isn’t that surprising considering he divorced their daughter.”

Wasteland Mix: Fragment 52