Are you familiar with the old joke involving the leader of Russia, the leader of the USA and Bill Gates? The one that ends with Mr. Gates saying "The good news is that God thinks I'm one of the three most important people on the planet, and the better news is that we no longer have to worry about fixing all the bugs in Windows"?
That joke isn't nearly as funny anymore.
Because God is real, and She just came down yesterday to Earth. And She is really pissed off. Every leader of any kind on Earth who had not been following the dictates laid down by Jesus of Nazareth got wiped out. Apparently that stuff wasn't in the Bible just for kicks - it was meant to be taken very seriously. The political, judicial, media and financial leaders who hadn't been obeying and espousing the philosophy laid down by Jesus had it relatively easy - they merely suffered instantly fatal heart attacks. God saved Her worst punishments for the religious leaders who had been ignoring the words of Jesus. If all they'd been doing was being false prophets they suffered heart attacks that were not instantly fatal but left them in agonizing pain for a few minutes before they passed. But if they had been abusing kids or had participated in covering up for priests who were abusing kids, they spontaneously caught on fire and took half an hour to die.
I'm not any sort of a leader. But She was upset with me, too.
"You haven't been doing anything nice for anyone other than yourself."
"With what resources? I've barely been able to make rent and buy food!"
"Yeah, that's another issue, and I'm currently talking with a bunch of other humans about it. (Being a deity, I can be in more than one place simultaneously.) Look at Matthew 19:24 and Mark 10:25."
I looked at the passages mentioned and just nodded. "So in practical terms, what can I do?"
"Tell you what. I'll make sure you have sufficient resources the rest of your life to support another person, and I'll also send one over, even worse off than you are materially, for you to support. Do your job right and I'll let you live a long life with them and I'll have you both die simultaneously when you're old and enter the Kingdom of Heaven together."
"You got yourself a deal, Your Deityness."
[The following day]
At 6:30 a.m., my doorbell is ringing? Why?
Oh, must be that deal I made yesterday. Guess I'd better get up.
And lo and behold...
"Hello, Ken."
"Samantha? What happened to you?"
It was a friend of mine from high school. It had been 10 years since we graduated.
"My husband got on the wrong side of the Mafia. They cut off his, um..."
I nodded.
"They made me watch as he bled to death, then cut out my ovaries, stitched me back up, gave me 15 minutes to pack and kicked me out of the house, saying it was theirs now because my husband owed them a few million."
"Jeez. I'm so sorry. You're welcome to stay with me."
"Thanks."
Samantha had just a few clothes and some basics. I gave her space in the master bathroom for her things (my apartment is one bedroom and 1 1/2 bathrooms.)
"You know what would be really nice right now, Ken?"
"What?"
"I feel a surge of crying coming on. The shock is wearing off. Just lie on the bed and hold me."
I did. Samantha got all her crying done. I said nothing, just letting her have time for her emotions to settle.
When she was done, I changed my shirt and lay back down. Samantha curled against me and we spent a couple of hours just like that, me with my arms around her and quiet.
She eventually broke the silence. "You're terrific, you know that?"
I shrugged. "Just doing what any decent human would do."
Samantha untangled herself from me and shuffled off to the restroom. I decided to ask God a question.
"Look, Your Deityness, I'm thrilled that you chose Samantha to send to me, but was what happened to her in the process REALLY necessary?"
God appeared in front of me. "Look at Luke 10:25-37."
I took a couple of minutes to locate and read through the passage. Samantha had returned by the time I finished.
"So?"
"If I hadn't let those men do that to her, it wouldn't be a legitimate challenge for you. But I made sure they got what they deserved."
"How?" Samantha asked.
"Their car caught on fire on the way back and they all got incinerated."
"I promise I'll take good care of Samantha and her PTSD. I still think it wasn't very fair to her."
"You two will be fine."
And with that, the conversation was over.
God hadn't been kidding about giving me enough resources to support Samantha. Three managers at my company had been, um, "terminated" by God for not following the dictates of Jesus, and I got a raise and a promotion within a week.
Having the resources was one thing. Buying enough food for two, learning how to cook dishes Samantha found tasty, buying her clothes and other necessary things - no problem there.
Helping her heal psychologically was a horse of a completely different color. I adopted a policy of not pressing her. I would hold her and let her rest in my arms. (We had to share the lone bed, but I figured sex was the last thing on her mind, so I made it very clear that I wasn't going to make any move in that direction until she asked me to.)
I got a lot of "Thanks, Ken. You're being very sweet."
To which my reply was inevitably, "Is there anything else I can do to help?"
And her reply was always, "Not unless you have a time machine. The only thing that would help more than what you're already doing is for this to have never happened."
After about a year of this, we were lying in bed one night and she was curled up in my arms, as usual.
"Ken?"
"Yes, Samantha?"
"You must be in need of a sexual release."
"Samantha, I didn't take you in -"
"Shush." Her finger touched my lips. "I know, and you've been a perfect gentleman. But I also know that you were crushing on me as far back as high school."
She was right about that. She was a busty, willowy brunette back then. She was still busty - a D cup, as I knew because I had just bought her a new bra last week. She was a little bit curvier now, and it only made her more attractive. Me, not so much - I'm a slightly overweight nobody with not much muscle tone, scruffy straight brown hair, and a thin beard.
"I doubt I'll ever have penetrative sex again, but that doesn't mean I can't get you off."
She pulled down my pajama bottoms as she said that. She caressed my legs for a moment, running her fingernails along my thighs. My cock began hardening. She wrapped her hand around it. Her mere touch caused me to stiffen fully.
"Nice equipment."
I didn't think it was extraordinary. About seven inches long and while not pencil-thin, it wasn't as big around as the bottom of a wine bottle, either. But I was glad Samantha approved.
"Thanks, Samantha."
She moved her hand slowly at first, sliding it up and down the shaft with a smooth, steady rhythm. I made sounds that she interpreted correctly as pleasurable. She smiled as she continued to stroke my shaft.