Build God, Then We'll Talk by Sara Travis

“I mean, I think I’m a strong team player, a great motivator. I’m well respected by my current employers, and I think that really speaks volumes about the sort of worker I am. I think I’d really be an asset to the company, and I hope you do, too.”

“Right. Well, but have you ever built a god?”

“Excuse me?”

“Built a god. Have you ever done that?”

“Um, no. No, I don’t think so.”

“Mm. Well, thanks for your time.”

“Oh. I mean, I could learn how to do that. Probably.”

“I’m sure you could, but really, this position is better suited to someone with a little more experience, you know? But thanks for your time, and well, good luck. Bye, now."

Build God, Then We'll Talk by Lesley Whyte

She knocked on the door of my office and then flung it open, sending my carefully built playing card castle clattering to my desk.

"Sir! They've started to communicate with each other! No words yet, but definite gestures and signs that they'll soon be starting to develop pictures!"

"Great," I said, sweeping the cards off my desk.

"Are you coming to see? We have footage of the test subjects-"

"No, I'm going to take a nap."

"But sir-"

"If they start to develop religion, wake me."

Build God, Then We'll Talk by James D. Irwin

I built the Genesis device in seven days. I only stopped to rest once. The whole time I just heard her voice echo around my head over and over and over… build God, then we’ll talk she said.

She— Eleanor— was a fellow student at the Andromeda Academy. Obviously she was beautiful. Nearly everyone thought she’d be Miss Universe sooner rather or later. Her people never aged, which was a distinct advantage. Anyway, I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her. Most of the students did. For the first seven years I was at the Academy I was too nervous to approach her. Most of the students were.

Eventually I couldn't take it any more I just walked right up to her, like I would a sales assistant in a discount shoe store. I nervously coughed, but before I could say anything she just looked at me dismissively and said ‘build me God, then we’ll talk.’ I was hurt, but distracted by how pretty she looked when she looked dismissive.

I took her remarks at face value, and set to work. I thought if I could pull it off, she might pull me off. I didn't have a clue as to how to build a god. You can invent gods easily enough, but building them into a physical presence is generally quite tricky. Most gods exist in ethereal forms, if you even see them at all. Gods also, as a rule, need a domain to rule over. That’s when I came up with the idea for the Genesis device. If I built a world I could declare myself God. It wasn't quite what Eleanor had asked of me, but she’d probably still be impressed. Also I’d be a God, and that’s the sort of power girls are supposed to find attractive.

Building the Genesis device wasn't that difficult. We’d be learning all about them in Terraformology class. The next step was obviously finding a planet I could terraform. I got pretty lucky and found one in a nearby galaxy. I fired off my Genesis device and BANG, the process began. Things evolved a lot quicker than I’d anticipated.

As soon as sentient life appeared I declared myself God. It was good to let my inner-authoritarian out for a while. I handed down a list of simple rules, although I got bored of enforcing them after a while.

Really my biggest mistake was boasting about it all over school. That’s when the problems began. All the older students would visit the planet and declare themselves to be the one true God. A lot of people on the planet believed them. I was never entirely dethroned, but it was still heart-breaking to see the creatures I’d created slaughtering each other.

Maybe things would have been different if I’d kept quiet and just shown Eleanor in private right when I first became God. I tried to put a positive spin on things, but she just laughed at me for not being god of my own world. I took this to be a rejection.

I cried for a long time— floods of tears. I abandoned the whole planet after that and hoped everything would just sort itself out. I’d forgotten about it for the last several thousand years, until I saw Eleanor on TV. She’d been crowned Miss Universe. She was just as beautiful as ever.

Build God, Then We'll Talk by Nick Trussler

‘Build God, and then we’ll talk,’ he said. I didn’t know what he meant. So I went out and got a job. When I came back he asked me again, ‘Have you built God?’ I told him I built houses for a living. He shook his head. ‘When you have built the house of God then we’ll talk.’ So I waited for a year and managed to build a small chapel in my back garden. Well, it was really more of a converted shed.

I went back to him and said, ‘I have built a house of God, now can we talk?’

He shook his head again, ‘It is easier for a poor man to squeeze through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. To build God you must first have nothing.’

So I sold my house and all my possessions save for the clothes I was wearing and came back to him. ‘I have nothing, tell me how do I build God?’

‘To build God you must suffer with his people. Go out and suffer.’ And so I wandered the country for two years and I suffered; I suffered cold, hunger, thirst, heat and, surprisingly, chlamydia.

I returned three years to the day since I first spoke to the man. I was thin, I was ill, I was hungry, I was poor, I was tired, I was dirty. I said to him, ‘Now can we talk?’

He nodded slowly. ‘Yes. Now we can talk.’ He took a deep breath. ‘We have meetings Tuesday and Thursday evenings, with prayers and songs and coffee and biscuits to follow. Friday evening is film night where hot cocoa is served, but you will need to bring your own food. Is this something you would be interested in at all? He added, smiling, and passed me a leaflet.

Now I think about it, it was really quite a lot of an effort just to please a street preacher.

Day Twenty-Four

And today's prompt is...

Build God, Then We'll Talk