To the west of the salt dome of Avery Island, in Delcambre, Louisiana, Wesley Singleton awakes unable to move. He is a 55 year old florist. His business is also his home, and has been for 7 years.
Wesley struggled with night terrors as a child up until he was a teenager. He believes the PCP he took as a high schooler growing up in a small town near New Orleans changed his brain, and the night terrors, sleep paralysis, and such never came to him for more than 30 years. And now he is here, awake in his bed, unable to move. Spring sunlight pokes through the blinds. The ceiling fan turns above him.
He cannot open his mouth, but he can speak. “What has occurred?” It would seem as if there is nobody to ask this but himself. He can feel otherwise, though.
“I am God” a voice speaks to him. Wesley is not surprised by this.
“Is that so? If so, I’m sure you’ve spoken to many people before. People much more interesting and storied than me. So you should know what to expect, from me.”
“On the contrary. I’ve spoken to every human that has ever lived, is living, or will live. Each one reframes the way I view everything. Of course, I am not surprised by this, but perhaps you are.”
Wesley thinks for 6 hours, although it was practically more like a few seconds. “Am I dying?” This probably should’ve been the first thing he should’ve said when confronted with God speaking to him, when he had awoken unable to move.
“From your perspective, perhaps you are.”
What Wesley doesn’t know is that what exists and what doesn’t exist in this reality is dependent entirely on what he is observing and what he doesn’t observe. What is real and tangible is only what he is currently observing. Anything he does not observe does not exist. It is as if object permanence is tied directly to him. In this way, he is reality. God will not tell him this.
“Prove to me you are God.”
The blinds open by themself. Sunlight that did not exist beforehand now pours into the room, although it remains dim.
Wesley thinks. “If you are truly God, you could show me something that I could not comprehend?”
“I have!” God says. “I showed you something you could not comprehend. Would it have been articulated in this story, it would have been about 23 or 24 sentences ago. However, you did not comprehend it.”
To emphasize that what God showed Wesley was beyond human comprehension, it has been omitted.“Ah.”
Wesley has run out of strength. The blinds close and the ceiling fan stops spinning.