The Truth About Everything

The Sims didn't know they weren't real, thought God, looking down on the hazy, glowing surface of the earth. The little people were running to and fro, and some of them were dying horribly, and some were having the best days of their lives. Only, none of them knew the truth.

None of them were real. God was sitting at his desk, pushing a tendril of blonde hair out of his eyes. It occurred to God that He needed to take a shower pronto, because his stringy blond hair was greasy, but he didn't feel like leaving his Earth right now. Some of the little people were doing very interesting things, while others were sleeping, but God liked to zoom in on the interesting ones, such as the President. Right now, he was watching Tom Cruise as he walked across the red carpet, waving to a horde of fans.

God sighed. He wished he could be on Earth instead of here, where the red dust swirled around everything and nothing edible grew out of the ground. He only knew about the Sims because he'd seen some of the people on Earth playing the game. Basically, you could be whoever you wanted to be when you played Sims. And you interacted with other Sims, buying clothes, and food, and maybe even getting married.

God keyed in a few rapid strokes on his keyboard and switched views from Tom Cruise to Hitler standing on a podium a long, long time ago. He enjoyed what he though of as ancient history the most of all, because it was so human, so real, and so bloody. There wasn't much entertainment for God, and he got bored all the time, sitting in his room with his robot dog and his computer, and nothing but Earth to keep him company.

He zoomed in to see a whole crowd of people saluting Hitler, and he could feel the madness of the crowd vibrating around in himself. The computer had an excellent sound system, and he leaned closer, throwing himself in as far as he could. It was almost as though he could feel the sun and the wind on his face, as though he stood with the raging, mad crowd.

"Don't believe him!" God cried out. He typed in a few rapid keystrokes. Don't believe Hitler and hit enter and waited. God prayed to God that the people would see the message but none of them turned around or sensed his message. God remembered his father saying You can't mess with the people's timeline. You can't intervene, even when you see horrible, horrible things happening.

The crowd raised their arms again in salute, hundreds of men women, and children, shouting. They watched Hitler with apt interest, and they believed. They hung on to every word. He's going to kill you, God keyed into his computer.

He waited.

One woman turned around. God zoomed in on her face, closer, closer, until he could see her puzzled expression and straggly blond hair. She had heard his message, and now she was looking up, trying to spot him. Yes, it's me, typed God. He waited, his heart pounding. The woman was panting now, clearly panicking. She thought she was hearing voices, losing her mind.

Don't worry. You're not crazy. I want to help you. I know things.

A solid, muscled man next to the woman patted her arm. He said something in German and the woman shook her head. She was still looking up into the sky, blinking rapidly.

This man, Hitler, is very bad. He kills thousands of people. You have to warn them.

"Who the hell are you?" said the woman in a strangled voice. She was speaking German, but the computer translated.

A friend. Who knows things.

The man was speaking to the woman in a hushed, but angry voice. Even though he was trying to whisper, it was clear to everyone what he was saying. "Karen. What is wrong with you?"

I want you to tell everyone you meet. Convince them.

"No!" Screamed Karen. "Leave me alone!"

Her husband took her forcibly by the arm and began to guide her through the crowd.

Scream at the top of your lungs, scream DON'T BELIEVE HITLER! I won't leave you alone until you do. I won't

"Don't believe Hitler!" The woman cried out.

God smiled. Ten seconds later, a car came over the curb and tried to swerve, but it was too late. He watched Karen take the impact, and knew she was dead before he zoomed in to see for certain.

God sat very still for a second, his lower lip trembling. A tear leaked silently out of his left eye and splashed onto the keyboard. You can't intervene. The words came back to him, but this time they were a punch to the heart.

Why? Why? It wasn't fair! A scream of anguish and rage built in God's throat and he pounded at the keyboard. Senseless letters tumbled into the void. SKDFSKDFH Somewhere, someone in the crowd looked up, confused.

"They don't know. They don't know they aren't real. It's not fair," moaned God, rocking back and forth, looking at his ancestors. He thought again of the Sims in their picture perfect world, breeding, eating, making houses for themselves, all along not knowing the greatest truth. Why should they go on if they knew? When they finally understood none of them were real, there would be no reason.

He pitied the billions of humans trapped on the planet Earth simulation on his computer. The simulation ran from before the age of the dinosaurs all the way up until when humans had vacated the Earth around the year 13,000 and sought out the sanctuary of Mars, a yet undestroyed place in the universe. Now, there were only a handful of survivors on this new planet, and all Earth's history was contained in this single simulation. God could track his relatives all the way back to the stone age, but he could never help them. He could never make their lives better.

He could only kill them.

What once was has to always be, God's father had said. Colin, sweetheart, his mother had said. You can't go changing the past. All that hurt, all that unkindness, even death, has to stay the same. If you intervene, they will only die. Because it's impossible for them to know and understand. It will kill them, erase them from the simulation.

God rocked back and forth, trying to bring himself back under control. Sometimes, when one of the humans would guess that reality wasn't real, they would erase completely from the simulation. Their friends and family, their lovers, would completely forget about them. There would be a blank, aching space in their hearts, and they wouldn't know why. The person would just be gone. All memories anyone had of them would be completely erased.

Colin, who knew he was not a proper God, stood up and walked away from his computer. There was another dust storm on Mars today and it was so lonely in their little encampment. Surrounded by billions of souls, he still felt alone.

He raked his fingers through his hair, momentarily contemplated the massive power cord that was plugged into the wall and then shook his head. Somewhere, in a distant part of the house, his mother was calling him to dinner.

"You're on your own now. Don't get smart and figure it out now," he whispered to the people, and then dashed out of the room.

He reflected that it was merciful that most of them didn't understand the truth. This was the greatest kindness the universe had to offer.