Easter Monday

By taking the time to look at his fifty thousand dollar watch, Telano Boyers nudged his fellow tech company worker JayShawn Getters. The seating plan on the plane allowed the two to face the other two in a neat compartment. Boyers woke up Remart Frank and Sartre Danker.

“What the hell––Telano. Goddamn, can I get some rest?”

“You’ll have plenty of time to rest when we get to Delaware. Now, we have to talk about how this ninety-six turned into a focused and fun excursion to Scotland!” Boyers dapped with Frank who only half-heartedly responded with a weak fist bump.

“Come on, men!” Boyers rallied the troops. “We just had the time of our lives and you’re just going to nap it away?”

“Yes,” the three of them answered.

“Remart, you were drowning in women. We all were but you especially. We hit the pubs but you were more concerned about the landscape and the cathedrals. You had white women swooning over you, my guy!”

“It’s a holiday, Tel,’” Danker said.

“You’re right and in four hours East Coast time, it’s going to be Easter Monday.”

This aroused the bunch. “Everyone puts so much emphasis on ‘Resurrection Sunday’ as the believers call it,” Getters pointed out.

“We wouldn’t be recovering from our hangovers if it wasn’t for this glorious day,” Frank said, yawning.

“You were with that woman, do you even remember her name, Jay?” Danker asked.

“Alana Ables.”

“Alana Ables!” Danker exclained. “She was quite the looker and slim waist, ample bosom and posterior, especially for a Scotswoman.”

“She had a brain, too,” Getters pointed out.

“I’m sure,” Danker observed.

“This is what I’m talking about. Let’s recount our stories while we can still remember them. And we can divine from each other the ideas of what Easter Monday means,” Boyers directed the conversation. “Getters, you had an opinion on the day. Expound upon it my good man,” Boyers mentioned.

“It’s great that we have this day because it allows for companies to let their employees breathe. We have enough room to got to Scotland for a jaunt and come back in time to prepare for the rest of the work week,” Getters explained.

“I agree, but it looks like Remart and Frank have other ideas. What’s up guys?”

“I think that the day is an extension of all that is holy on Sunday. It permits us the action of praising Jesus for all he’s done for us,” Frank said.

“He hasn’t done anything for me,” Getters fired back.

“He saved you of your sins,” Frank said. They all were fully awake and sober, now.

“I’ll die for my own sins thank you very much. I don’t need Jesus of Nazareth going to a post and bleeding for what I did ten years ago or thirty years from now or today,” Getters proclaimed.

Danker looked at his companions. “Do you see this blasphemy? The Lord our God in the name of the Father in the name of the Blood shed his blood so that we could live.”

“Sounds pretty selfish without a self to me,” Boyers chimed finally.

“What do you mean?” Frank asked.

“It’s like the Abrahamic faiths, especially Christianity, preach selflessness, collectivism, and altruism, but want to accept the death of one man to cover all of their naughty business. That’s horrific! I mean billions of people around the globe actually don’t believe this stuff. They couldn’t or they would have committed suicide a long time ago,” Boyers asserted. Do you agree, Jay’?” he asked.

“Yes, I mean if Jesus of Nazareth did all of that, why would we need any code of ethics that points in the direction of faith? If people value objectivity, shouldn’t it be blindingly apparent that all of this mystical stuff is just garbage that clogs the mind.”

Frank cleared his throat. “I say that Jesus is with me wherever I go. I am a believer and know where I’m going when I die.”

“You weren’t saying all that when you were chasing skirts back there in Edinburgh,” Getters snapped.

“It’s like you said, yourself. He forgives all sins past, present, and future.”

“I said nothing of the sort. I was delineating the fact that Jesus is supposed to do that. It’s expected of him. It makes no earthly sense or universal sense for that matter. Christians are the most irrationally self-interested people on the planet. They want the goods to just fall from the sky like manna without having to trade with anyone but just because they’re hunks of flesh deserving the spoils. It’s disgusting.”

Boyers leaned in closer. “You know that this is like a great debate. Except the answer lies with the lopsided victory for Jay’ and me. We have reason on our side. Your mysticism could never compare to the warehouse of truths that rationality extols,” he said.

“That’s just it,” Danker said. “It’s called faith because you have to believe. You have to suspend your judgment about gravity pressing down on you, that light reflecting off of the atmosphere and scattering which makes the sky blue––all of it. It is all about knowing something greater than what you can determine with your five senses. We ‘walk by faith not by sight’ or smell, or taste, or touch, or hearing. It’s all about denying our senses and discarding reason to please Him.”

“I know that Sheena was pleasing you in that hotel room,” Getters pointed out.

Danker almost blushed. “You see. That sin can be washed away. It’s great. Being a Christian just means you can do whatever the hell you want and throw down that Jesus card and you’re ‘Scott’ free.”

“Ha-ha, with the puns,” Frank said. “But it’s true. Jesus loves everyone in the world. Everyone in Scotland, in America, on this plane. The whole world. Once you commit to him and allow him into your heart, you have nothing to worry about. Sure you’ll be mired down in perpetual doubt and still seek church and scriptures for answers instead of looking inward and knowing for yourself the truth. It’s grand,” he commented.

“I know one thing,” Boyers said, “We can agree on the fact that this Easter Monday is secularized for our pleasure. We will be arriving in a few hours and it will be just the beginning of the day. We can thank the American private companies for getting that right. Another homerun for the private corporations that so many loathe but are a boon for us.”

“Let’s not even get started on that,” Danker said.

“Why not?” Boyers asked. “Just like Halloween and Christmas, what once were thought of as purely faithful times turned commercial and now satisfies anyone who wants to believe and everyone who chooses to use reason.”

“You got me on that one,” Danker said.

“I throw in my hand,” Frank responded.

“I know.”

The four men looked at the black sky turning blue just coming into view with the large overhead window above them. In their minds they registered the time they had in Europe and looked forward to the touchdown in Wilmington, Delaware.