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(9:41 AM: Grant Park, Chicago)

…It’s him!

"The Baptist is here, he came after all!" Shouted one of the several hundred people gathered in a large, city park.

News of a supposed prophet was being heralded through America with a pulse-pounding buzz. The Baptist was an odd figure that roamed the city in a dark, brown robe, while preaching to the public about the dangers of overpopulation, and the abuse of the world’s resources. Once a well-respected technician for NASA, this one time astronaut had a series of dream-like revelations that turned him into a wandering preacher.

This Saturday afternoon was like the rest of the days that the Baptist preached on, but unexpected events were destined to occur. The Baptist had been initially known for his ecological lectures, which always related to the everyday lives of people, especially those that lived in large, urban areas. However, recently, he had gained phenomenal attention from the media and several bureaus of legal authority, due to his miraculous healing abilities.

As the crowd gathered outside in the sunlit park’s center field, Jacob Basal began to speak; for it was Jacob who had somehow morphed into a new persona, a persona that the public simply labeled as the Baptist. Jacob disliked the title, because as a man of science, his real purpose was delivering stern warnings about the dire state of the planet and found religious titles unflattering and misleading. Even so, he took center spotlight and did what he did best, as he spoke in parables about the world’s ecology. More importantly, he warned of his visions of the future in a world torn apart by epidemics, greed, and its population’s unchecked numbers.

While the Baptist preached, several people from the crowd would bring in their sick, moving through the dense wall of spectators in order to have their loved ones healed. In response, Jacob sporadically walked toward them and with the laying on of hands; he would heal each and every one of them. Many in the crowd were skeptical of the healer’s powers, but most were enthralled at the man’s miraculous gift. Nevertheless, such intense miracles caused tremendous attention and had brought about men that would test the prophet’s mettle. In tandem, two voices cried out from the crowd. Dressed in black and white suites and sporting obvious government identification, the men walked up to Jacob and tested him before the large crowd.

"My name is agent Farley, and this is Lieutenant Sandburg. Well, I’m just going to state the obvious – three days ago you began to walk into hospitals and heal people, right?"

Jacob just looked at the Government agents with a relaxed response.

"Yes…I’ve done just that," replied Jacob plainly.

"Well then, you really are some kind of modern miracle, right? Who do you claim to be? John, the Baptist? Moses? Perhaps Jesus himself…did you come back from on high to rescue us? I mean it’s obvious your charismatic, but what could a former astronaut be doing conducting cheap parlor tricks in public? You were once thought of as a kind of new Einstein; you know with all your popular work on space vessels and such. But now, you seem to move to a beat of a different drum – I mean this whole religious thing, it’s kind of demeaning for someone that won last year’s Noble Prize, isn’t it?"

Jacob knew the men were up to no good. He was aware that the government was watching his every move over the last week, even before he began to perform the healings. Nevertheless, it was painfully obvious that they thought his abilities were phony. To halt any damage to his reputation; Jacob intercepted their verbal fiasco immediately.

"Listen to me, I have no time for your games. I realize you don’t believe how I do what I do. Truly, I say to you all, that even I don’t understand how this healing works. Four days ago, I was just an ordinary man with a mission: a mission to warn everyone on earth that they must stray from gluttonous actions against the planet. That we, as a species must control our population and tend to those who are ill, not turn them away because they don’t have the right insurance, or neglect those in poverty! Our greed has made us corrupt and as I slept, I dreamed of horrific visions. After these visions, I had a compulsion to heal and then I realized that I had a gift.

I decided to go out into the world and heal as many as I could. In my dreams, God had told me to heal the sick as an example to others, that others might see this healing and realize they have healing abilities of their own; that you and everyone around you can work together and heal the planet. You can do this by closing down factories and corporations that rape our world’s resources; you can help to stop terrorism by aiding the poor and sharing our wealth. Maybe then, after I have healed the sick, would you people heed my warnings and heal the very earth we abuse!"

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