Part 4 (1/2)

Dear Answer to Everything, My wife is have trouble conceiving. Can you give advice? Reply me immediately? [email protected]

Drew

h.e.l.lo, I've been kind of depressed lately. My job sucks and I don't have a girlfriend. I have a club I go to when I can afford it and when they let guys in alone, but it's not the same and it's pretty expensive. It's not working girls at the club, by the way. It's real people who want to get together. It's all controlled and very clean. But it's only once a month that they let men in without a partner. I'm saving up to get a condo and a proper girlfriend, but my job is terrible and the real estate keeps going up and it seems like I'll never get out of this place, which I hate.

I live in a room in a house at Jarvis and Gerrard. I have my own fridge and hotplate, and I bought a small chest freezer to save money on bulk purchases, which was a good idea, since it's already paid for itself twice over. I have to share a bathroom, though. And the people here are pigs. Total depressing pigs. If I didn't clean the sink, it would never get cleaned. Seriously. I did an experiment once to see if anyone else would clean it if I stopped doing it. No. Of course not. I finally broke down and cleaned it after three weeks. I couldn't stomach it anymore. You should see the hair slime I have to pull out of the drain every couple of months. Disgusting. I asked the girls not to comb their hair over the sink, but they still do it, even though they claim they don't. I pull the evidence out of the drain every six weeks, so I know they do it. They won't even flush properly. You have to flush the toilet two or three times sometimes because the plumbing is bad, but they don't wait to do it. They're too selfish to wait for the tank to fill up. It's sickening. Depressing. The worst one isn't even the crazy alky or the working girls. It's the Ryerson student. Griffin something or other. Ironic. The guy who's taking journalism lessons and comes from some upper-cla.s.s household. The working girls flush more than he does. Not only doesn't he flush properly, he buzz-cuts his hair in there and covers the whole place in tiny black hairs, which he doesn't clean up properly and which end up in my room, stuck to my socks and whatnot. The super doesn't care. He barely speaks English. I have to do the cleaning, and I have neck and shoulder pain, which is getting worse all the time. I'll be so glad when I can get out of this place. Which is who knows when, given the rising real estate market. The more I save, the higher it gets. I can't catch up. I work for Blood Services, at the call centre. I'm not selling anything but people still get peeved when you call them. Plus my employers can't seem to get it straight who to call. Half the time I'm supposed to call someone to tell them about a blood drive because it says they haven't given blood for over a year and they're like, ”p.i.s.s off, dude, I gave blood last week, get your records straight.” So it's depressing. My mom thinks I should move back to Brampton, where I could get a nice condo for a lot less, but I don't want to. For one thing, my mom's there. Ha ha. I love her and all, but she's a plus-size lady and not mobile and I'd basically be her personal slave if I went back. Also it would be even harder to find a proper girlfriend or job in Brampton. And there are no clubs like the club I occasionally go to. I'd rather not go to the club but sometimes I break down. I love Jesus Christ and I hope your signs are about Him. I think they are. I'd like to come for a meeting sometime. Please let me know if you ever have any. Sometimes I go to the Jarvis Street Baptist Church, because it's close. But I'm not a Baptist. I tried to go to St. Luke's but it's screwed up. It says United on the sign, but there's always a different congregation in there. And usually not English. Filipino or whatnot. I think they just rent it out to different foreigners, which is fine but doesn't work for me. Anyway, let me know if there are any meetings. I've been feeling kind of depressed lately, so it would be good.

Ibrahim

Dear Answer to Everything, We are doing all things you say. Thank you. Thank you for putting her predicament to the top of group prayer agenda. You are very kind. I would make a donation. Advise please where to send?

Heather

I guess part of me wants to talk about this, but not to anybody I know. And part of me thinks that seeing your sign the other day was an omen. It was on the post at the end of my street and must have just been taped there, since we had rain all morning. I went out about an hour after the storm and there it was. Perfectly dry. Since it was the first time I'd left the house in over a year, it felt like it had been put there for me. And so I've decided to continue on. Or at least try.

I'll start when things were good, when I got pregnant again and we were so happy. I had been pregnant before, twice before, but it hadn't worked out. Both times I had miscarried in the tenth week or thereabouts, so when we made it to week sixteen that third time, we finally let ourselves get excited again. Paul really wanted a son. And I really wanted a daughter. I guess that was the first sign of trouble, but we didn't know it. We used to joke about it. Paul would talk about all the things he was going to do with his fine boy-make a rink out back for hockey, go snowmobiling on the trails, build stuff in the workshop. And I'd sa.s.s back with all the things I was going to do with my sweet girl-make a playhouse in the yard and decorate it, have tea parties with homemade squares and cakes, design clothes for her Barbies. I used to sew quite a bit. I made all the drapes in our house, and lots of pretty doll clothes for my nieces. Paul was sure we were going to have a boy. He wanted to paint the nursery blue, but I wouldn't let him. He said blue was good for a girl too. But I said no, we were keeping it white until the baby was born because I wanted pink if it was a girl. Then the five-month ultrasound was coming up. We agreed that we still didn't want to know and asked the technician not to tell us. But after, Paul was acting all c.o.c.ky and smug. He wouldn't stop smiling. And he played the drums on the steering wheel all the way home, I remember that, the sound of his wedding ring tapping the wheel and him singing to the radio, which he never did. It was that song ”Good Day Suns.h.i.+ne.”

At first he wouldn't tell me why he was acting strange. But that night in bed he apologized and said he accidentally looked at the ultrasound screen and saw we were having a boy. He said he saw his ”thing.” I didn't believe him. Even if he thought he was right, I didn't think he could tell. I had also peeked at the ultrasound screen, and all I could see was hazy grey shapes. You could hardly even tell it was a baby, let alone a girl or boy. I thought it was impossible to tell with just one look. And it bugged me that the very next day he painted the nursery blue even though I asked him to please wait. And that's when I made the second biggest mistake of my life. That's when I got all prideful and went against my husband and nature. That's when I went into the nursery after Paul was asleep and got down on my knees beside the little pine cradle and prayed with all my heart for G.o.d to please, please give me a girl.

My first big failure.

My second biggest mistake.

I'm sorry. This is much more difficult than I thought it was going to be.

Tyson

Atheism = Satanism. Jesus battled Satan in the desert and we are battling Satan in the streets, in the schools, in our homes and hearts. Repentance, faith and obedience can save us. We must not fall from felicity to misery. Prayer is what we need to stand firm. Make no mistake. This is a war. This is a war with the great deceiver, the insidious schemer who will leave no soul untempted. I recognize the fullness of G.o.d in your posts. I would like to join you in spiritual warfare against the beast and his malicious and devious devices. Tell me where and when and I'll be there with the armour of G.o.d's love and the sword of faith held high.

Catelyn

Your posters are so great. Thanks!!! I'm a single mom and it's hard right now. I have some savings from working at s.h.i.+eld a.s.surance Company and things were going good, but then I slipped up with an ongoing situation and got let go. I'm back on track now, but they won't hire me back and I can't look for new jobs with my daughter to take care of. I can't just leave her with anyone, because we all know how that goes.

My ex's mom was supposed to take care of Staci when I went back to work, but then she had to get a job because her boyfriend split to go work with his brothers on an oil rig. Staci's dad doesn't pay support because he's unemployed. I don't think he's trying so hard to get a job. He's a drummer and wants to start a new band. He says he's going to get famous and rich and buy a house for Staci and me to live in. That would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath. I support his dream and all, I just wish he would take a part-time job to help out. His mom watches Staci sometimes and makes dinners when we go over, but she can't help with support. Todd says he can't watch Staci during the day because he has to practise and look for work. It's true that he's practising, but I don't think he's looking. I told him he could probably get a training position at s.h.i.+eld a.s.surance to do what I was doing, underwriting a.s.sistant, but he says he'd rather kill himself than work in the insurance industry, which isn't very nice considering that was my career. I've been paying for everything for the last three years and I didn't hear him disrespecting the insurance industry then, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, your posters are a wind beneath my wings whenever I see them. I do feel like I'm struggling. And it's hard to stay positive. I have had troubles with substance abuse, but I'm trying to stay clean for my daughter's sake. I'm good now. But it's rough. I go to meetings but half the time the meetings make it worse if this guy is there. There's this old guy in group who is always going off about all the bad stuff in the world, like talking about how all the food we eat is genetically modified and the companies don't care if we get cancer so long as they can make more money and put the real farmers out of business. And about how all the bees are dying from pesticides, so there won't be any food in the future anyways, and forget fish because the oceans are full of oil spills and the chemicals to get rid of it and nuclear waste from j.a.pan, which is making all the fish toxic and all the shrimp deformed in the Gulf of Mexico. He said there's a garbage dump of plastic water bottles swirling around in the middle of the ocean that's bigger than an entire nation. I don't know if I believe that one. I mean, why would they end up all together in one spot? And then yesterday he was saying how the USA is releasing killer viruses in China to test them as weapons, like a special bird flu that will end up here because even Chinese from remote villages fly to Toronto quite often. And he was going on about antibiotics that don't work anymore and how, if you go to the hospital just to get st.i.tches, you'll end up dying from germs they can't cure that are starting to spread into gyms and the subway, on the poles and such. Then he said it won't matter anyhow since the Arctic ice is melting and underneath is the same poison gas that killed the dinosaurs, and all the humans are going to die out much sooner than scientists thought. So it's really messed up and scary and really hard to stay positive. But you have to stay positive for your kids, right? I have to be hopeful for the future and for my daughter. And your messages are helping me stay hopeful. They're like a whole other side to the story. So thanks!!!! :)

Wayne

I became interested in your messages and started tracking when they appeared, to see if there was a pattern (at first I thought they appeared randomly-once every six to eighteen days). Then just by chance I noticed a rather stunning correlation between the appearance of a new message and a doc.u.mented UFO sighting somewhere in the world. For example: MONDAY, 19th: New posters along Bloor between Dufferin and Christie. UFO sighted over Lipetsk, Russia (disrupts traffic over airport, according to unnamed official).

FRIDAY, 30th: New posters on Bloor between Ossington and Spadina. In Mexico City, a large rotating sphere (Mothers.h.i.+p), orange in colour, releases dozens of white spheres and is captured on digital camera by Antonio Ruiz and multiple Mexican citizens.

TUESDAY, 10th: New poster at the Bloor/Gladstone Public Library. Ngunguru, New Zealand-mysterious light formation sighted in the skies above Tutukaka.

I could go on with further examples, but I'm guessing that I don't need to point out this ”coincidence” to you. Suffice to say that I am extremely interested in learning more about your organization. Please get in touch at your earliest convenience. You can learn more about me through my blog: e? All of it is absolutely fantastic. So why wouldn't people believe that my grimy, sweet across-the-hall neighbour Eldrich was a prophet or even a G.o.d? Of course they would believe it.

The only question was, could I get Eldrich to believe it?