The God Equation and Other Stories (14 page)

She is a young girl, seventeen or eighteen years of age, with smooth alabaster skin, chestnut blonde hair, and rich blue-green eyes that stare out between forgetfulness and forever. She wears spider silk robes and a crown of emeralds and gold.

She is, will always be, exquisitely beautiful.

“The Sweet Stranger” copyright ©
2008
by Michael A.R. Co.
This story was a
Gregorio Brillantes Award Finalist for prose fiction.

It was my first time in Boracay back in 1997. It was a different beach back then: less commercialized with a lot more nudity.

Many foreign ladies, from Europe mostly, had no qualms about removing their
bikini top
s
. They loved our balmy Philippine climate, they loved exposing themselves to the sun, and we welcomed their strange customs without complaint.

I approached one of them as she sunbathed near the shoreline. Of course, she didn
’
t have a top
on
. Her name, which she spelled
for me
in the sand, was “Laurence” and she pronounced it “Law-Rahnss” because she was French. I asked her why she was topless, and she just shrugged. She then asked me what I did for a living. And I said, “I
’
m a writer.”

That was true. I was a
professional
writer
. I did newsletters, brochures, and occasionally some ad copy. But I never wrote fiction. Yet there I was, concocting an elaborate piece of verbal fict
ion just so I could maximize my
time ogling this sweet stranger.
I thought it would impress her.

Ten years later, when my first story “The God Equation” won first place in the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards,
I discovered that I might
indeed
have
the talent for telling written lies.

I guess this is where inspiration comes from: talking to beautiful women in tropical beaches.

Or
perhaps,
reading British novelists.
Tolkien, Fleming, Gaiman.

In 2006,
Neil Gaiman (yes,
the
Neil Gaiman) had sponsored a writing contest with a local bookstore chain. It was called the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards, and the top prize went as high as US$2000. It was
, by far,
the biggest cash prize for any literary contest in the country
, including the prestigious Palanca Awards
.

I knew I had to give it a shot.

I had an idea percolating in my brain for at least ten years. Fear had kept me from committing the words to paper, and laziness prevented me from even trying. Thankfully, greed took me in with open arms.

I feverishly wrote the story about the angelic assassin over a two-day period. I submitted
my
entry minutes before the deadline.
It would take many months before the winners were announced.
When the time came,
Neil (I like to think we
’
re on a first name basis) couldn
’
t attend the awards night, so the organizers played a video recording of him saying swell things about each of the winning stories. He
described
m
y story
as
“
muscular
”
and he thoroughly enjoyed it.
That
’
s all
a 145
lb guy
needed to hear.

I
’
ve
written more stories since then. Two of them (“In the Eyes of Many” and “The Sweet Stranger”) were also shortlisted in subsequent Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.
Through the gentle
and persistent
prodding of my wife, a novelist in her own right, I
’
ve decided to share
some of
these stories to a wider audience.
I
’ve
re-edited them slightly for this edition.

“The God Equation” came from a simple premise about
the nature of
faith.
I think that a
t the heart of all belief is the secret fear that everything is a lie
, and
one
overcomes th
is
fear not by seeking answers but by
acceptance
:
whether it
’
s
ac
cepting
Jesus as their Lord and Savior; a
ccepting the cycle of reincarnation as the path to Nirvana
; a
ccepting
that Sisyphus will always roll that rock;
or
a
ccepting that the universe is filled with big questions
beyond the sound of one hand clapping. And it is these questions, not the answers, which drive
us to keep on
living
.

“Waiting for Victory” sprung from my interest in the
five-century-old
Magellan expedition. When I was in grade school in the U.S., I was taught that Magellan was a great explorer, and that he was killed by “unfriendly natives.” When I returned to the Philippines,
however,
I was taught that Magellan was a villain and he was killed by the country
’
s first hero, Lapu-Lapu, the chiefta
i
n of Mactan.
J
ust like the relativity of time (Julian, Gregorian, Einsteinian)
it just shows that history will always be written by the victors.
But individual characters
do
make major historical impacts, whether you believe in butterflies or not.
For those unfamiliar with Philippine politics, we have a president, not a prime minister.
You might want to read the story again.

“The Off Season” was my attempt at writing a Christmas crime story. Not having a criminal mind, I decided to focus on the consequences. It was a fun story to write, inspired by the notion that Chr
istmas began as a pagan holiday
and
that “Old Nick” was also the nickname of the Devil
.
He might even have worked for the CIA.
Choose what you want to believe.

“In the Eyes of Many” is a personal favorite.
It
’
s
surprisingly
prescient, the way SF is supposed to be.
I think it
’
s one of my best, although “The God Equation” seems to
have
its share of
fans. I wrote the story before Twitter
became popular
, and I was tempted to
rewrite the story to include the site
,
just to keep things up-to-date.
W
hat a futile exercise that would
’
ve been.
Wikileaks
, anyone?
The right to privacy is one of Man
’
s greatest lies.
(
Although some would blame the
s
erpent.
)

“The Sweet Stranger” is an
East-meets-W
est
fantas
y.
It
’
s a
lso a
coming of age story
with
a love triangle involving
Dr.
Jos
é
Rizal (the Philippine national hero), Josephine Bracken (his Irish mistress), and
one of his students. History
does
mention a
“
Father Spada,
”
but I
’
m sure he never was a student of Dr. Rizal.
Apologies to his de
s
cendents.

I come from a nation of
performers
.
We sing, we dance, we make up stories.
We take inspiration from our perceived past
s
, painful present
s
, and
fantastical
futures. We enjoy wordplay, in native and foreign tongues, and we take inspiration from the both classics and clichés.
Our skin comes in many shades, and you can find us working in many lands.
We are often misunderstood, and it
’
s no surprise that we often misunderstand ourselves.

I guess this could
also
describe other nationalit
ies
.

Perhaps that
’
s what fiction is for: a way of sharing how similar we
actually
feel about the stuff
in our world and beyond.
Little lies to help us see bits of truth, with a small letter t.

Believe me
.
I
’
m
a writer.

Michael A.R. Co

December
30,
2010
(Rizal Day)