A few years in Heaven

(Word count: 976)

It was the sixth day of the Project World and it was going to complete ahead of schedule. God was busy multi-tasking with the roles of strategist, architect, designer, builder and quality assurance man. Everything was ready for the Earth to self-sustain. The seeds, plants, crops, creatures in every possible size, shape and colour, their re-production cycle, pre-coded genes for the creatures to build their own nests and collect food, that too several beautiful variations of it.
“Volia!” thought God “This will be a beautiful show piece in the universe. Enchanting blue from the outside and at a closer look, self-evolving, self-sustaining and bustling with life as long as I let the sun continue as is. This is my best creation so far!”
Devil came along and looked at God and his work curiously.
“What do you think?” God asked Devil. It was evident from the tone that he was really proud of his work.
Devil had a look at the world and then another and he kept on staring. He turned a shade of brown from black, burning from jealousy.
“Bloody! He nailed it this time! I would hate to have him get away with it!” he thought.
God noticed Devil’s reaction and it made him even more pleased.
“Nice, isn’t it?”
Devil scratched his head and pretended to let out a yawn.
“Boring, I would say.”
“What? There is so much of variety, what is boring in it? “God could not believe his ears.
“It is good to see once… after that one will see the same thing over and over again.”
“You are wrong.” God said proudly.
“Look at that sparrow. It can weave its own hanging nest. Look at the way it is collecting fibres from the trees. See how they are finding their mates and working together on the nest. Soon there will be eggs and then there will be next generation of birds. The parents will feed them and they will grow up to have their own lives. I have planned unique life cycles for every creature out there!”
Devil turned a brighter shade of red, but he managed. “You may be right, but I will just be seeing repetition of this behavior pattern. Nothing more. Definitely not worth another look.”
God lost a bit of his enthusiasm “Do you really think so?”
“Um…hm” His colour was turning darker. “Good; I managed to create some amount of confusion”, he thought.
“What is missing, in your opinion?”
“I told you! It is not dynamic! You pre-coded their genes to build, but not to have a vision, architect or design!”
“That would be chaos!”
“Not if you are as good as you pretend!”
God scratched his nose. “I can make it dynamic, but too less time to alter the genes of all the creatures, let me make a new creature.”
“Do you have time for that? The project is due today!” Devil tried to add some pressure.
“Let me re-use the forms and genes that were used to make us, but with limited scope.”
“That can be dangerous!”
“Not if their scope is limited to just this blue sphere that I have named Earth.”
“It is still a new concept. You won’t have time for quality check.”
“That is okay, I can manage with a little less quality check.”
“Your wish, but I just want to make it clear that I have no part in your decision for this new creature!”
“That is okay.” God already had dreamy eyes, typical of him when he was creating something new.
“Let me make this one the manager of all other creatures, so that I don’t need to oversee. I am going to name it Man”
“Are you saying it can really create new things?”
“Yes, it can use any material or creature available on Earth to create new things.”
God was successful in creating the Earth with Man on it, that too within schedule. Everyone was impressed, even though the quality check on Man was not really complete. God undoubtedly won the ‘Project of the Year’ title for the Project Earth.
Devil was in the front row of the award function, bright red, and he muttered. “Your year end appraisal is taken care. Let us wait for a few years and see how the promotion goes!”
A few years passed in heaven that was equivalent to a few thousand years in Earth and Earth was always showcased whenever an important event happened in heaven.
The Men on Earth became hunter-gatherers, they spread the entire Earth from the one spot where they were originally placed. They became farmers, made new tools, made villages, fought wars with other villages, ate many other creatures to extinction, built sky scrapers and space shuttles, created countries and capital cities and created nuclear weapons to fight other countries.
God was in a promotion committee meeting and was highlighting his achievements, when suddenly fire balls and smoke erupted from earth like two mushrooms.
“What are these mushrooms?” the committee asked God.
“Those are nuclear explosions.” God sheepishly replied.
It was no wonder that his promotion was rejected.
Some more time passed and one day Devil came along. One look at the earth and Devil was quite pleased. He approached god with smile on his shining black face. God was standing all thoughtful and appearing very serious.
“Is that moving junkyard that throws garbage to the sky and beyond your precious Earth?” he asked with a glee.
God hung his head in shame. “I was thinking of the same thing. I need to find a way to get Man change his ways or destroy Earth without disrupting the solar system, otherwise I will lose my job.”
Devil’s laughter resonated in the great hall of heaven. “Okay. I will leave you to it… hope to see you again when I visit next time!”