Mother of All the Gods Read online

  Mother of All the Gods

  R.P. Wolff

  RPW Books

  Copyright © 2021 R.P. Wolff

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by RPW Books - Dallas, Texas

  To Alexa

  Prologue

  The Awakening

  “I do love you,” Maria Valadez whispered to her new-born baby. Maria sat in her twenty-year old Honda Civic with her sweet baby sleeping in a wicker basket. “I’m not abandoning you. I just can’t take care of you. I just want you to have a better life. I don’t want you to suffer like me. I can barely take care of your brother and sister. I’m going to give you to a rich family that can take better care of you than I can.”

  She sighed and gazed up into the car’s ceiling. She knew the perfect family: the Tillmans. She used to be one of their many housekeepers until she got pregnant—her third time. Once she started showing, she had to quit. There was no way they would pay an unmarried, pregnant woman to clean their house when there were so many other women to do the job without Maria’s problems. The Tillmans didn’t want any drama.

  But what they wanted—and even with all their money they couldn’t obtain—was a child of their own. They kept trying. They spent thousands, if not millions, on fertility drugs but nothing worked. Max and Joanne Tillman married in their mid-twenties but were now in their late-thirties and still without a child. Max Tillman recently took over the family pharmaceutical business, the largest in the world, from his powerful father who retired due to terminal cancer.

  Maria figured now was the perfect time for them to adopt a baby—her baby. But Maria worried that they wouldn’t be interested because they had previously mentioned that they would never adopt. The child had to have their blood. Maria figured that if faced with a helpless baby in a basket, they would relent and adopt. If they didn’t, then she would reclaim her baby. A small part of her hoped that they would reject her baby.

  She waited in the covered parking lot of the Tillman Opera House in downtown Dallas. She parked in a handicapped spot that was about thirty yards from the VIP spot where Max Tillman always parked.

  It was almost time.

  She faced her baby again, and spoke in a high-pitched voice, “Please don’t be mad at me. One day, I’ll come back for you, and I’ll give you soft kisses all over. Please forgive me. I just want the best for you, my love.” She started crying. “I don’t want to give you up. I don’t, but I can’t take care of you. Oh, baby, please don’t look at me that way.”

  Maria’s older sister, along with a friend who served as a midwife, had helped deliver the baby in her sister’s apartment. Maria’s other children, Pedro and Anita, had stayed at a friend’s house. Pedro was four and Anita was two. Only her sister and some suspecting women knew of her pregnancy. Pedro also suspected that she was pregnant, but Maria kept telling him that she had just gained some weight.

  The birth of her baby was unknown to the authorities. No hospital or doctors knew of the baby’s existence.

  At first, she planned on keeping the baby. She earned money being an Uber driver, but that dried up because her car kept stalling. She received bad customer ratings as a result, and Uber cut her off. She was living with her sister in a Section 8 apartment, but her sister did not make much money cleaning houses. The landlord threatened to evict her sister because he correctly suspected that she had too many people living with her which was against the Section 8 rules.

  Her sister had always told her to “get yourself a good gringo that can take care of you.” Maria thought she got a good gringo in John Bose. Well, he was a good-looking gringo but not a good gringo. He lived at home with his parents and had a bad coke habit, but he was tall with wavy dark hair and the eyes—the blue eyes melted Maria. It was her weakness.

  He was the father of all her kids. He always promised her that he would eventually marry her but never followed through. He did give her some money for the kids, but it was never enough and was sporadic. After going several months of not paying her or even seeing her after Anita was born, Maria told him to get his gringo ass out of her life.

  He stayed away for a while, but then one night, at about midnight, those blue eyes showed up and melted her again. She was defenseless. It only took one time, and she was pregnant for the third time. She never told the gringo and refused to meet him again—even with the blue eyes.

  She glanced at the car’s clock.

  It was time.

  She wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve and shook her head. She couldn’t believe she was doing this.

  Because she was their former housekeeper, she knew that Max and Joanne always left a play ten minutes before the end. They wanted to beat the traffic and couldn’t face the commoners. They hated the commoners. They hated shaking hands or having any chance of getting germs. They freely spoke in the house thinking that the staff were uninterested or unintelligent to understand what they said, so the entire staff knew everything about their snobbish life.

  Her plan was simple. She would place the basket to the side of the Tillman’s Rolls Royce at about fifteen minutes before the play ended. The Tillmans were precise and prompt people. They followed a strict schedule. No one should be around except the Tillmans. People didn’t leave plays early. The Tillmans would surely notice the baby and hopefully hold her, care for her, and eventually adopt her. No one could resist her sweet baby.

  She put some necessities in the basket: formula, diapers, a blanket, a pacifier, and a note. The note read:

  Mr. and Mrs. Tillman,

  This baby is for you. We know you will take good care of her.

  The Gods.

  Maria believed in the Gods of the Sun, Land, and Sea, and she had heard that the Tillmans believed in them too, though they rarely talked about religion. Hopefully, they would think that the Gods sent down the baby—not some lowly commoner like Maria.

  Maria exited the car and carried the basket. She shook her head with shame as she walked towards the Tillman’s car. “I’m a piece of shit,” she whispered aloud. “What mother gives up her baby? The Gods are going to punish me for sure.”

  She stopped and rubbed her hand over her forehead. “I can’t do this,” she said. She turned and faced her car contemplating going back. “No, I have to do it,” she blurted out and started crying again.

  She turned back and scurried to the Tillman’s car before she could change her mind. She wore a hoodie to disguise herself in case there were cameras. The Tillmans parked their car in a private spot. There was enough room to fit two cars between the walls, but the white lines only allowed one. She placed the basket right by the driver’s door. There would be no way Mr. Tillman would miss it.

  She sniffled and gave a gentle kiss on her baby’s forehead. “Bye, bye, sweet baby,” she whispered. She hurried back to her car and repeatedly glanced back at her baby to make sure there were no intruders. She sat in her car, punched the steering wheel, and cried uncontrollably. “Why me! Why does this have to happen to me?”

  A slow-moving, ghetto-looking, green car interrupted her thoughts. She could see that there were several people in the car. They drove extra slow and just passed the Tillman’s car when they stopped and put the car in reverse.

  Maria gasped. Were they going to take her baby? She glanced at the clock which showed that it was eight-fifty. “Where are you, T
illmans? Come on. Get here.”

  The rear door opened quickly and a kid, a teenager it looked like, darted to the basket, grabbed it off the ground a couple of inches, then dropped it and fell to his knees holding his crotch.

  “No, no, you’re not taking my baby!” Maria yelled inside the car.

  Maria rushed out of the car, and yelled, “Hey, get away from that basket.”

  They couldn’t hear her or just ignored her. She started running towards them. She had to save her baby.

  A second kid came out of the passenger seat and also tried to grab the basket. This time he fell to his knees before he even got to the basket, and he seemed to be in pain too.

  As Maria got closer, she could see that the boys were still scrunched over and moaning in extreme pain.

  A side garage door opened, and the Tillmans emerged. Maria stopped and hid between cars and crouched down. “Please Mother of all the Gods, save my child,” she said softly.

  The green car sped away, leaving their friends behind.

  “Hey, what the hell is going on here?” Max Tillman barked.

  The boys continued to moan.

  Max walked up to the boys and was getting ready to speak to them again when he noticed the basket. “What’s this?” he said, while looking at his wife.

  She shrugged.

  He went to grab the basket, and he dropped to his knees in pain.

  “Max, oh the Gods,” his wife said. “Are you okay?” She knelt next to him and rubbed his back.

  The baby started to cry.

  “It’s a baby!” she said. “It’s just a little baby. What happened? Why are you in such pain?”

  “I don’t know. I feel like someone is sticking a needle in my dick.”

  “Yeah, that’s what it feels like,” one of the kids grunted.

  “The baby’s doing it,” the other kid said. “The baby’s got some kind of power.”

  “Nonsense, I’ll pick up the baby,” Joanne said.

  “No, don’t,” Max pleaded.

  Joanne picked up the basket and then set it down, but she wasn’t in any pain. She then picked up Maria’s baby from the basket and held her, patted her, and the crying stopped.

  “See, it’s just a little baby.” She stared at the baby. “Hello, little one. Where did you come from?”

  Max and the teenaged boys continued to moan and still knelt.

  “Is this your baby?” Joanne asked the boys.

  “No, we don’t know whose baby it is.”

  People started coming by to see what all the commotion was about. Maria emerged from her hiding spot and stood amongst the crowd gathering.

  Why were these guys in pain? she wondered. That’s weird. But she was glad that the boys dropped the basket without harming her precious baby.

  “What were you doing by our car?” Joanne asked the boys sternly.

  “We were … curious about what was in the basket,” the larger boy said but was having difficulty speaking because of the pain.

  “Does anyone know whose baby this is?” Joanne asked the newly formed crowd of about twenty people.

  Just then, the sunlight shone through the opening in the garage right onto Joanne and the baby. It looked magical.

  “The Gods must have sent her,” an older lady said.

  “Yes, the Gods must have sent her,” Maria joined in. This pleased Maria that someone thought the Gods sent her daughter.

  “The sunlight is shining on the baby,” a man said.

  “Is this anyone’s baby?” Joanne asked again.

  “She came from the Gods,” Maria shouted. Maria knelt and bowed before the baby, hoping that others would join her.

  “Yes, it must have come from heaven,” another person said.

  The larger of the two boys said, “It has powers. Look at us. We’re in pain. It must be a God.”

  One by one, everyone started kneeling and bowing their heads.

  Shortly afterwards, Max and the boys stopped moaning.

  “I’m not in pain anymore,” Max said, while rubbing his crotch.

  “Neither am I,” said the smaller boy.

  “Wait,” Joanne said, “there’s a note.”

  “Read it,” people in the crowd said.

  “It says Mr. and Mrs. Tillman. This baby is for you. We know that you will take good care of her. It is signed by the Gods.”

  “The baby is a girl, and she is a God,” said Max.

  Maria sighed. This couldn’t have worked out better. Her baby was not only in good hands—she was a God.

  What did that make her?

  Chapter 1

  Thirty-Five Years Later

  “We interrupt this radio station for a special announcement from President Max Tillman. Please stand by.”

  “Wow, this can’t be good,” Lance said as he glanced at Becca, his teenaged daughter, who was sitting in his BMW’s passenger seat.

  He pressed another radio station, and they heard the same message.

  “I think I better pull over for this,” he said.

  “What do you think it’s about?” she asked.

  Lance shook his head. “I don’t know, but with all that has happened in the past few days, this can’t be good.”

  “But Dad, I have to get back to school.”

  “I know, but I don’t want to drive while we listen to this announcement. I have the feeling I’m going to get upset. Don’t worry we have the orthodontist’s note.”

  Lance pulled the car over and parked in a strip mall. He stared at his daughter, who was a freshman at Lewisville High School in Texas. Like many freshmen, she recently had her braces removed and just had a follow-up visit with the orthodontist. They were just on the way back to the school.

  “What?” Becca shrugged. “Why are you looking at me?”

  “Nothing. I’m just worried for you.”

  Every few seconds, the radio would repeat the same message:

  “We interrupt this radio station for a special announcement from President Max Tillman. Please stand by.”

  Lance Hampton had a lot to worry about. He was the former governor of Texas. He served one term, but lost his reelection bid about six years ago to Patsy Allen, a devoted Mater. Materism, the religion that worships the Gods of the Sun, Land, and Sea, had taken over the country by storm. Zelda, the Mother of all the Gods, was its leader. He couldn’t stop the wave and lost the election. Of course, Patsy exposed his lack of faith in Materism which sealed his fate. Because many people in Texas were loyal Maters, he became an outcast in his community. Fortunately, his wife, who was also an attorney, and daughter still believed in him and loved him.

  Before he lost his re-election, Lance’s life seemed perfect. In his teens he was an all-state quarterback at Lewisville High School. Got a full ride to the University of Texas in Austin. Even though he rode the bench, he received a free education. After college, he went to UT’s Law School and then immediately got involved in politics.

  Lance was in his late forties. He was tall, with broad shoulders, brown thinning hair with shades of gray, and brown eyes. He felt that he only retained a small portion of his younger athletic body because he could lose about twenty pounds, and he rarely exercised. In his younger days, he had no problem picking up girls. Girls flocked to him. Shortly after law school, he married Penny Klein, who he met in law school. She was a beautiful blond with a perfect body. Men always gawked at her. Lance liked it when he caught men staring at his wife. He was proud to land such a beautiful woman and liked showing her off.

  Shortly after his loss to Patsy Allen, the political environment continued to deteriorate. The same year he lost his election, Max Tillman surprised everyone and won the presidency. Lance seriously wanted to leave the country because he couldn’t bear to have a devoted Mater as president. But he figured that Max Tillman wouldn’t last long, and Congress wouldn’t let him do any damage.

  Lance was wrong.

  Support for Max Tillman grew and most representatives in Congress converte
d to Materism. The wave was overwhelming. Lance couldn’t believe that Christianity lost its way and allowed Materism to quickly take over the country. President Tillman’s popularity continued, and he won reelection and now had a super majority in both the House and the Senate.

  Lance was a partner at a civil rights law firm that protected Christians, Muslims, Jews, and especially atheists from extreme Mater attacks. His efforts proved feeble because the Tillman-packed federal courts ruled against Lance’s clients. The Supreme Court even ruled that his clients were infringing on the Maters’ religious freedom.

  But the changes in the last month made Lance’s head spin. The first bomb to drop was the passage of the Constitution’s 28th amendment which repealed the first, second, fifth, and sixth amendments and made Materism the national religion. This was unbearable for Lance, who was a Christian. There was no way he was going to convert as many of his neighbors and co-workers did. He wouldn’t stoop to their level. He wouldn’t allow his enemies to force their beliefs on him.

  The amendments were shocking, but the resignation of Vice President Tom Hoffman and the immediate nomination of Zelda Mater, Tillman’s adopted daughter, who was the claimed Mother of all the Gods, to fill the vice-president position was very scary. Was the United States becoming another country like Iran with a dominant spiritual leader?

  What more bad news could there be? Lance wondered.

  He was about to find out.

  ◆◆◆

  A pleasant female voice, over the radio, said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.”

  “Oh no, here it comes,” said Lance, as he gently put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder.

  “Hello fellow Americans and fellow Maters,” President Tillman began. “Today is a great day. Today is the day you have all been waiting for since the Awakening Day. Today is the Conversion Day spelled out in the Book of the Sea. Today, everyone will be free to practice Materism without fear of the evil infidels.