Whispers in the Air

By Chikezie Abengowe

This book contains a few stories that are fictional narratives and discussions that are about pressing real life problems. It was real when Galileo Galilei was grievously punished for telling the truth: the earth is round not flat. A lot goes on in our universe. This is evidenced that many nations on earth have in knowing what is going on there. This curiosity has motivated their development of an International Space Station where they have permanently left astronauts to monitor the planets and far away stars. Between the astronauts and pilots on earth, they have observed unidentified flying objects. These UFOs are mysterious and cannot be explained by any traditional scientific ways. The observers suspect the presence of other beings with higher intelligence residing somewhere. The union of planets must know where the beings are hiding, and it makes sense to eavesdrop on conversations between them to extract the truth. So, we listened and listened and listened to the planets and the moon, and we heard them speak!

Religion is based on the fear of the supernatural God. As we battle through life's priorities, we run into serious, sometimes difficult, and dangerous problems we assess ourselves incapable of solving. It is at this point that we call on the supernatural to help having seen, felt, and observed the fearful unexplainable manifestations of the deity's power. Peoples in different parts of the world have different experiences that determine how they view and worship the deity that is important to them. Because of each unique experience of the deity, conversion into a new religion for many is never complete. A few paraphernalia of the old religion linger in the mind of the convert.

COVID-19 has visited us and seems capable of forcing itself on us. It has ravaged our health, our economy, and our self-esteem, and has changed much of social interaction. It is real, and we discussed all aspects of it as it affects us. What to do to minimize the spread; isolation and contact tracing; available testing methods; realities and controversies about therapeutics and vaccines and coronavirus politics of influence and disregard of science. There was a discussion on the array of difficulties that face going back to work and school.

Also discussed were predominant problems of pollution and global warming with their disastrous effects on wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding; global population control and the rise of only children; and the persistent problem of inequality and the killing of Black men and women by the police. On the lighter side of our discussion, we profiled the life and death of John Lewis and SpaceX's recent travel to the International Space Station. The book ended with an appeal to the younger generations to save us from existing bitterness and confusion in our society.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781662432699

Book preview

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Whispers in the Air

Chikezie Abengowe

Copyright © 2022 Chikezie Abengowe and Omenogor Abengowe

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-6624-3268-2 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-3269-9 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter One

The Way It Was

Chapter Two

The Big Invention

Chapter Three

The Listening Sessions on Faraway Planets

Chapter Four

Fear of the Supernatural

Chapter Five

Mercury, Venus, and Earth on Population Control

Chapter Six

Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Earth on Only Children

Chapter Seven

First Earth/Moon Conversation in March on COVID-19

Chapter Eight

Second Earth/Moon Conversation in March/April on Weather, Pets, Funerals, Testing, Cleaning, and Disinfection.

Chapter Nine

Third Earth/Moon Conversation in March/April on Pollution

Chapter Ten

Fourth Earth/Moon Conversation in May on COVID-19, George Floyd Killing, and Business Reopening

Chapter Eleven

Fifth Earth/Moon Conversation in June/July on COVID-19 Testing, Contact Tracing, School Reopening and the Death and Burial of John Lewis

Chapter Twelve

Sixth Earth/Moon Conversation in August on COVID-19 Testing, Therapeutics, Vaccines, Return of SpaceX/NASA Spacecraft and Political Elections

Chapter Thirteen

Seventh Earth/Moon Conversation in September on COVID-19 Testing, Therapeutics, Vaccines, Wildfires, Hurricanes, Election Voting Methods and Revelations

Chapter Fourteen

The Way Forward—Chaos and Violence, or Community?

About the Author

This little book is dedicated to our four lovely children:

Omenma Princess Abengowe

Udochi Joseph Abengowe

Onyeoma Dominic Abengowe

Amamihe Magdalene Abengowe

Their wild imagination, resourcefulness, and contributions have inspired the writing of this book. They will forever remain the apples of our eyes. They are fondly known at home respectively as Meme, Udo-do, Yum-yum, and Ama.

Chapter One

The Way It Was

For centuries after centuries, astronomers, scientists, physicists, chemists, archeologists, and many observers of the solar system—sometimes called the universe—have noticed a very strong, somewhat awkward, relationship between the sun, the planets, and other celestial bodies. Far back, great thinking guys like Galileo, Newton, Gay-Lussac, Pluto, Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, Chaka Zulu, American Indian chiefs, King Jaja of Opobo, Genghis Khan of Mongol Empire, President Nelson Mandela, Queen Amina of Nigeria, Chief Aba-eghewa-Otugbo and the great Chief Gilbert Uchegbuo Abengowe of Umuakwu Nsulu all agreed in their knowledgeable minds that all planets, for some hidden reasons, fear and vigorously obey the sun.

They will not fall off their positions as they circle around the sun in reverence as though they suspect their Creator lives in this storm of fire. Not only do these cosmic bodies circle the sun daily, they permit the sun to inspect all their parts when they rotate in their axes. The sun even organizes and shapes their climates and seasons. Of even greater wonder is the nature of the orbits in which planets ride in space. Orbits are an awkward combination of a hard vacuum which contains a low density of particles, a huge amount of a plasma of hydrogen and helium, a continuous flow of electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, neutrinos, sprinkled with dust and cosmic rays. What makes the world go round?

Today, there is still fear among humans because there is so much about the universe we do not know. Uppermost in our psyche is if other living beings are hanging out somewhere in space. If they have eluded us this far in time, it might be because their technological advancement could be higher, and they watch all our movements as lower beings. Could they be agents of the supernatural power that rules the universe? That gives an awfully eerie, scary feeling! NASA and other nations are camped out in the International Space Station spying on earth and all other planets and behold, they view numerous unexplainable mysterious objects in the sky which they classify as Unidentified Flying Objects. Some of these were released recently by our government for public view.

Until recently, these great thinking people and us, ordinary people, have suspected that these cosmic and celestial objects and beings do communicate with one another, just like we do, or complain when offended. For instance, when a huge asteroid traveling at tremendous speed suddenly crashes into an unsuspecting planet: Ouch, ouch, that hurts! What was that for?

Most of the planets were hidden from us until Galileo Galilei invented and built the first known telescope, and with improved instruments, more planets have been discovered. This guy, Galileo, had argued before the Catholic hierarchy that included Pope Urban VIII, telling them that the Earth is round. They didn't believe him. It was common knowledge then that the earth was flat! Galileo had presented his life-long observations of the rise and fall of the sun daily from and to a curved horizon. The curve of the ocean's edge in the open horizon, the view of birds flying over the Alps in curved horizons, and finally, the round shape of the full moon known to be the night companion of the earth. And with, Wherefore the earth is round, he rested his case.

Whither at thou stepping on now? the Inquisitors asked him.

On earth's surface, he confessed.

Art thou now walking on a round surface or flat surface? they questioned him.

On a round surface and only kept upright by Almighty God, he boldly answered. Before the times of Isaac Newton, the concept of gravitational force was unknown.

Thou art evil mentioning the name of our Great Creator. Thy knowledge hast made thee mad, they admonished him. With this fury, they found him to be vehemently suspect of heresy, excommunicated him, along with the Jesuit Priests who supported him, from the church, and eventually placed him on house arrest for the rest of his life! Phew, truth doesn't sit well with some people. Even in our own era, many ignorant people rely on conspiracy theories, rather than accept the truth. They cover their ignorance with ideology and crude politics!

Today, if you look around you, there are people who occupy the highest positions in our land who pretend to disbelieve science as political expediency. These nincompoops grew up having science around them, use science daily, and invest in science in their financial portfolios, but because they want the loyalty of many poor, ignorant, less knowledgeable brothers and sisters of ours, they stoop so low to discredit science. They did this with climate change argument, pretending it deprived our country of economic growth. They did it with population control by presenting religious arguments. They are now using the same discredit for science to perpetuate confusion in the life and death fight against the deadly coronavirus. It is even more outstanding that this tendency to deny science is only in a one-party following.

America is and will continue to be the embodiment of scientific growth. With or without the activities of these brainless, science-denying sycophants. My hope rests with younger generation who, I expect, will bring strong independent thinking in our daily discussions. I am encouraged because I have witnessed people of my age and older march in unison in opposition to policies that result from such sycophantic following even when they are members of such party.

My name is Meme. I am sixteen years old, and I am in 10th grade. My mother's name is Ome. She has four kids with my father—two girls and two boys. My father's name is Chike. My younger siblings are Udo-do, twelve; Yum-yum, eleven; and Ama, six. I am the narrator of the events that generated the stories in this little book, but first, let me tell you a little bit about my family.

Our parents both migrated at different times to America from Nigeria. They are from the Ibo tribe which is the second largest tribe in Nigeria. The largest tribe is the Hausa-Fulani and the third is the Yoruba tribe. In addition to the three big tribes, there are many other smaller tribes in Nigeria. My parents are academically educated. They believe that education is the only social activity that can lift someone from poverty. Education may not make you rich, but when utilized properly, it can maintain life at a fairly comfortable level. They see educational achievement as synonymous to climbing a pyramid. At the base, there are several people that achieved little or no education. Competition here is fierce, intense, and brutal and many become frustrated and eventually deteriorate instead of growing. This is one of the disadvantages of low education. As you move up the pyramid and climbing near the top, it is populated by fewer people with higher educational achievement. Here, too, there is competition, but it gets broken down into specialty of knowledge rather than on the generality of knowledge. Competition here, therefore, is more strategic than raw. But in all, they maintain that education is a personal achievement in which you must be honest to yourself. In this process, you must recognize what you have done before, what you have left to do, and what you need to do. All these must be time managed that way you can continue to be a part of the other worlds in your universe. You must never, never, never deceive yourself. To succeed in life, you must always be forcefully truthful to yourself.

The principle of self-honesty, though important in this generation, will fuel and power competition in future generations when competition will be even fiercer because many more Americans would have been educated and competing for shrinking opportunities. Our parents tell us that conditions in future would be far less cozy as it is now. That future generations will not only deal with the devastating effects of climate change and environmental degradation; they would also be confronted with the repercussions of human scientific and technological advancements.