http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGzghUQRVk8
Does a man who can see the future cause that future by acting on it? Or is he simply a mote swirling through a river on an unalterable course? I once got to talk to the entity known as The Undertaker, and here’s how it went:
It was a warm, dusty day - well, pretty much like most days in the Southwest unless it happened to be during a Monsoon. So really, I guess it was just another day. Another day punctuated by Ravens. Hundreds of Ravens and a man wearing a top-hat sitting on a bench watching a nervous crowd trying to go about their day.
I was a young cock-sure bastard, so I walked up to him and put it right out there; “I hear you’re called The Undertaker. Why is that?”
The dusty old man with the disconcertedly glowing eyes slowly... ever so slowly looked up at me. After an eternity he replied “ayep”.
“And places you go to have massacres.”
“Sommat like that.”
“Some say you’re a Demon that causes the massacres.”
“Ayep.”
“Are you?”
“Nah. I’m a Gen-U-ine prophet. You see son, I see the future, and it’s always the same - piles of dead. ‘Cept with a twist. If I don’t box em, they get back up.”
“Always?”
“Dunno. I always do the boxin’, and they never get up. Perfect so far.”
“Would the massacre happen if you didn’t show up?”
“Dunno son. But I do know the consequences are too severe to contemplate.”
“How can it not eat at you? the thought that if you ignored these visions all those people could still be alive”
“Of course it does son. But what eats me more is the thought of whatever thing that causes these deaths gets ignored, and then the living is left with hoards or mindless, flesh eating demons to contend with. No sir, that’s much worse.”
“Do you mind if I ask your name sir before I run off and hide?”
“It doesn't matter where you hide son. If its your time, it is. You can call me Calvin.”
“Calvin? That’s an odd name.”
“I consider it more ironic really. Almost as if my mum had a warped sense of humor.”
“Well sir thank you for your time.”
“A pleasure Jed.”
“I didn’t...”
“I know.”
Two days later, 16 people were killed in an insane shootout over horse manure. The Undertaker boxed each one of them up and no demons arose. I was caught in the middle of it, and somehow only miraculously lost my left hand to a heavy slug.
I still think about that day, and I wonder... Did I loose my hand because I spoke to him, and made Death aware of me? Or was I spared because I was the first person in who knows how long who had spoken to him? Or was it all random - a roll of the dice as a Huckster would claim?
Damned if I know. I do know that whenever The Undertaker appears there is a massacre, he boxes them all up, then moves on to the next. And in spite of it all I still wonder why he thought his name was ironic.