2021 (44 page)

‘You sound somewhat of an
art expert yourself, Your Holiness?’ smiled the President.

‘I’m not an expert, but I am a keen lover of
all art, but especially fine paintings’ explained the Pope cheerfully before continuing;

‘When
the painting was given to us we believed it showed the Anti-Christ. Now of course, we know we had that very wrong indeed’ laughed the Pope politely.

‘But how is all this possible?’ puzzled The President ‘I mean, even if the
painting wasn’t a Van Gogh, it sounds like it’s been in the Vatican’s possession fifty years or more before that young man was even born?’

‘Maybe the face on the painting was changed
later?’ pondered the General.

‘No, all the paint is of the same age’ stated the Pope
‘and in any case we have photographs of it when it was first presented to us that show clearly the same young man’s face on them.’

‘T
hen this is all just incredible’ marvelled the President.

‘Yes, it is quite remarkable’ agreed Pope Paul. ‘We recently came into possession of an Egyptian scroll hidden inside a large metal cup, both were written in an ancient Hebrew dialect, same as the oldest Bible texts’ continued Pope Paul.

‘In the scroll itself it predicts the coming of a young man and calls him by the name of
The
Prayerman
’ explained the Pope. ‘It describes him as an ordinary working man who will one day save all the people of the world from a previously unknown and evil warrior from the stars. I’ll have our people send you a photograph of both the cup and the scroll discovered inside it with a translation into English if you like.’

‘Yes, t
hank you, Your Holiness, that’s very kind of you’ smiled the President.

‘It sounds like a
genuine miracle has really just happened then’ commented the General thoughtfully.

‘We are indeed lucky, General Iram, to have witnessed such an event in the year of our Lord 2021’ replied the Pope cheerfully.

‘But tell me, Your Holiness
, what will you tell all your followers?’ asked the President curiously.

‘I will tell them the truth,
Mr President that we have witnessed the coming into the world of a miraculous young man, one who God sent here to save us’ stated Pope Paul firmly.

‘Thank you, Your Holiness’ smiled the President.

‘God bless you both’ replied the Pope before hanging up.

‘That settles it then!’ smiled the President
cheerfully ‘if Pope Paul is going to say it was a ‘miracle’ who am I to argue!’

That night
, the President of the United States mounted a podium in front of hundreds of thousands of people set just before the Lincoln Memorial. The speech was broadcast live on television and radio and was watched by people all around the world.

In his speech
, the President thanked every nation for their bravery in making a stand against the invincible Migrators, but then he took a deep breath.

‘As anyone there
on the front line will tell you, we could only hold the Migrators back. For in truth, the world was saved by a miracle, a miracle that came in the form of one young man who with a power somehow given to him, wiped the Migrators off the face of this Earth! That young man’s name Ladies and Gentleman was The Prayerman!’

It was to become the most famous
, but also the most controversial speech by any United States President in the whole of history.

In short, it caused a sensation!

Earlier in Rome, Pope Paul had given a similar speech to his millions of followers all around the world. He asked for prayers of thanks to God for sending humanity the young man he called ‘The Prayerman’ and he asked for prayers to be said, to comfort all the people who had lost friends and loved ones and to thank God for the miracle the world had received.

Walking back after giving his
usual final apostolic blessing to the City of Rome and the rest of the World, Pope Paul passed by the Van Gogh painting still lying there face down on the wall.

‘One moment please!’ he smiled as he walked back to
wards it.

‘Perhaps we could now have this painting placed the right way round?’ he smiled.

‘Yes, Your Holiness’ smiled both Cardinal’s Greco and Moretti as they did
just as he said and carefully turned it proudly face up on the wall.

‘I think it’s earned that much now, don’t you?’ he smiled as the two Cardinals both smiled and agreed.

Pope Paul
then approached the painting and he just smiled.

‘God bless you!’ he uttered as he made the sign of the cross
over the painting before moving on again.

The coming months saw mass funerals
and memorial services for the tremendous amount of dead and even more ‘missing presumed dead’ casualties at the hands of the Migrators.

Special
memorial services were also held to honour the troops and also civilian casualties of almost every nationality who had died bravely fighting on the International Defence Wall.

Services were held all over the world after the announcemen
t of an international day of mourning to commemorate the dead of ‘the Great Migrator War’ as it was now being termed.

The jubilant celebrations that greeted the Migrator
’s defeat were now replaced by pictures of the sheer devastation they had left in their wake.

Complete cities had been lost, raised completely to the ground and the list of the dead proved truly shocking for everyone to read.

Almost every nation had lost someone and th
e world was united in its grief.

28
^th
February 2037

Montparnasse,

Paris, France.

B
ishop Joseph Brown was on a four day sabbatical with other church leaders to discuss the continuing improvement in relations between the many different world faiths and religions.

On his
rest day though, he toured the District of the left bank of the River Seine, famous for its cafes and street artists.

Being a keen amateur artist himself, Joseph was interested to see the different works on display there by its resident artists.

His good friend
, fellow Bishop and art lover Jacqueline Zimmerman strolled along the area with him as they both admired the work of all the artists on display.

‘Oh, I must say, I like this one!’ remarked Jacqueline
stopping to admire one particular painting leaning up against a wall.

‘Really
, you like
that
one?’ pondered Joseph unable to hide his surprise.

‘Yes, its vivid use of colour, it’s so unusual’ she smiled
as she just stood there and stared at it ‘there’s just ‘something’ about it don’t you think, Joseph?’ she commented happily.

‘Yes it has something, it
s rubbish!’ laughed Joseph as she just told him off for being so critical.

‘
I’m sorry, Jacqueline, but it’s just not my cup of tea I’m afraid’ Joseph grimaced as he just looked at the painting again and then shook his head.

‘Come on, Joseph, you must be able to see it surely?’ she smiled
‘it just has that special something’ she insisted.

‘No
, I just told you, I think its just rubbish’ laughed Joseph as she just admonished him again.

‘Oi, Don’t be so nasty!’ she criticised him with a friendly smile.

‘No, I’m not really into the impressionists’ he commented ‘great land
scape artists are more my style. Give me a nice Turner or Constable any day’ he smiled ‘you know, one of the proper
painters.’

‘
Gosh you sound pompous!’ she laughed ‘anyway, this man’s a proper artist too’ she argued.

‘
Really?’ he scoffed ‘no, not in my eyes’ he smiled.

‘Ah, you
’re just too stuffy!’ Jacqueline laughed.

Then she pondered a while whilst she studied the painting again.

‘Do you know, I wonder how much it costs?’ she smiled as she looked around for a price label.

‘Oh
, you’re not actually going to buy that are you?’ Joseph chuckled away.

‘Yes I am
’ she replied ‘well, that’s if I can ever find the artist who painted it that is’ she smiled as she looked all around for him.

‘It
looks like no one’s around’ Joseph concluded. ‘Mind you, maybe he doesn’t want to own up to actually having painted it?’ Joseph chuckled away to himself.

‘
Will you behave yourself, Joseph’ she just laughed.

There was an older man with a large beer b
elly standing opposite with half a dozen or so paintings of his own on display, so Jacqueline went over to ask him if he knew where the artist had gone who had painted the particular painting she liked.

‘Um, excuse me
, I wonder if you speak English?’ she asked politely.

‘
Me? No Madam’ he replied in perfect English before his face broke into a large smile. ‘Yes, Madam, I was only joking’ he added ‘how can I help you?’ he finally asked.

‘
Oh, thank you’ she smiled ‘I just wondered if you knew where the artist is who painted that painting over there?’ and she pointed to the one she was interested in buying.

‘Probably drinking wine if I know him
, down at a café somewhere, well, that’s if he can still find one he doesn’t already owe money to, if there’s even one left in Paris’ he joked with a snigger.

‘Oh, only I
just wondered how much that painting was?’ she explained as she pointed to it again.

The man just looked at her and laughed
then he shouted over to a young lady artist just a little way away.

‘HERE, MICHELLE! SOMEONE ONLY WANTS TO BUY ONE OF FRA
NZ’S PAINTINGS’ he grinned away.

‘YOU’RE JOKING?’ she smiled as she came over
to see them.

‘Which one?’ she asked curiously.

‘The lady wants
to buy
that
one’ he informed her, pointing to it.

‘Really?’ she smiled as they both walked over to study it
. ‘What is it supposed to be anyway?’ she puzzled as the old man just shrugged his shoulders.

‘
Don’t ask me, I only paint
real
things. Who knows what’s going on in that crazy man’s head?’

‘What’s
the artist’s name?’ asked Joseph, purely out of curiosity.

‘Oh
it’s Franz Rozen, he’s Dutch’ replied the old man bluntly, as the girl artist kept staring at the painting turning her head at different angles to view it differently.

‘Will he be long do you think?
The artist who painted this one I mean?’ asked Jacqueline and the girl just looked down at her watch.

‘He’ll most probably be ages if he’s just st
arted on a new bottle’ she laughed ‘it depends if his brother has sent him some more money’ she smiled.

‘B
it of a drinker is he?’ asked Joseph and they both laughed out aloud.

‘That’s a bit of an understatement, Monsieur’ the girl smiled.

‘That’s a shame, as I wanted to buy that one’ stated Jacqueline sounding quite disappointed.

‘Really?’ the girl laughed and then she called over ano
ther artist just a little way away.

‘HEY PIERRE,
SOMEONE WANTS TO BUY ONE OF FRANZ’S PAINTINGS!’ she shouted as Joseph just covered his ears.

‘Gosh, you’re a bit loud’ he complained quietly under his breath as Jacqueline just laughed at him.

T
he young man immediately came over.

‘Reall
y, someone wants to buy one?’ he queried ‘why?’ he laughed.

‘My sentiments exactly
!’ laughed Joseph as Jacqueline just nudged his arm in annoyance.

‘Stop making fun
of me’ she smiled ‘I don’t know what it is’ she shrugged ‘there’s just something about that painting.’

‘Yes, it’s
terrible
!’ Joseph giggled away quietly to himself.

‘Shut up you! You just keep your opinions to yourself’ she smiled
jokingly.

‘It’s not just
my
opinion’ argued Joseph ‘it appears it’s
everyone’s
baring yours that is’ he smiled.

‘Well I don’t care, I like it
’ she insisted.

Jacqueline just ch
ose to ignore him completely now.

‘How much do you think the artist would want for the painting?’ Jacqueline now asked as they all just looked at each other blankly and shrugged their shoulders.