This is from a journal I have kept about visits from my friend Emerson.
Who is Emerson? He is a bit of an enigma - a part-time poet and full-time drunk. He is not famous or a celebrity, but he's what some might call a ladies' man, although, after a night with him, they often wonder why. Silver tongue devil...
This story happened more or less about 25ish years ago. I was reminded of it when Emerson stopped by the house last week. He just showed up knocking loudly at the front door.
Emerson joined me once on a trip to New Orleans. We were standing with a couple of drinks on the corner of Toulouse and Bourbon Street when an old man walked up and waved a Bible at Emerson, asking him, "Do you believe in God?" He was holding pamphlets in his other hand like a shield. He looked him square in the eye and said, "The last god in an empty universe sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door."
He paused. Confusion fell briefly across his face, but his evangelistic rage fired back, "You are never alone with God!"
"Yes, but the last god, the last of everything, is sitting alone in a room. There is a knock at the door."
The older man purpled, glared at him, and shook his Bible. "You're wasting my time, you devil worshiper." He thrust a pamphlet into my hand. "Make sure he reads this and he yet might save his soul."
Watching him stomp away to the next block, he shouted, "You are never alone with Jesus."
I glanced at the pamphlet, which had a print of an angelic white Jesus with his hands clasped in prayer. He looked saintly outward. The quote read, "Let those among you who are without sin be the first to throw the stone." - Jesus of Nazareth.
I handed it to Emerson, who looked at the paper thoughtfully. "Here. hold my drink." He took a pen, placed the piece on my back, and wrote something down. He ran over to the older man and gave it back to him. There was a heated discussion, and the man grabbed the paper and tore it up. He shook his pamphlets and the Bible at Emerson again and charged away. All I could make out were the words "Satan" and "Damnation." Emerson strolled back, and I handed him his drink back. "What was all that about?" I laughed. "What did you write down?"
"Oh, some people don't like to be corrected. I said that he had forgotten to include the rest of the verse. 'The crowd looked at Jesus, believing he had a good point. Then Jesus picked up a stone." He finished his drink and began to cast about, eyeing the bar across the street.
I was laughing now. "That's a good one. I'll have to remember that joke." He nodded at the bar, and we began to walk over.
Emerson said, "It's not a joke. That's part of the whole verse."
"It does not say that in the Bible."
"Well, it used to. It got edited out around 1600 when the Bible was translated into English."
I shook my head, not sure if he was still joking around or being serious. "Fine! Whatever! I'm thirsty, so let's head in." We were in the third round of drinks when I remembered to ask him about the knock at the door. He just looked at me and smiled that Cheshire grin of his tapped his nose, and said, "Spoilers." I glared at him and said, "Oh, for the love of.... You are so buying the next two rounds."
He never told me what was knocking on the door.
Twenty years later... I was sitting alone in a room, feeling like the last of everything. There was a knock at the door. I didn't want to open it, but it wouldn't stop knocking. I had been left behind. There were reasons; some were mine, and some were hers. The result was I had been left behind. Now, I was here at the end of my world. That's when I heard the knock. I thought the knock would disappear if I were quiet enough, small enough. I couldn't, I didn't want to... It was painful.
It knocked again. Then I remembered Emerson's riddle, "The last god, the last of everything, in an empty universe is sitting alone in a room. There is a knock at the door."
"God damn, Emerson. ...stupid spoilers..." I got up and wiped my face. I opened the door. The man with a Cheshire grin asked almost kindly, "Fancy a drink?"
Originally written on October 7, 2021
Updated on February 5, 2025
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