The Kata-Foy Artifact
It was ending.
The papers had been signed and the demolition subcontractors had commenced work. Noise, dust and bitterness swirled about the large buildings.
Several elderly couples could be seen struggling with their belongings down the steps of the Lighthouse Corporation. These were oddly attired in
old-fashioned, cheap garments. It was as though a time capsule had opened and these bewildered occupants had crawled out into the light of day.
A few mounted policemen assisted nearby with traffic congestion. Brooklyn bustled with activity under an overcast sky. An October wind gusted
from the west as the temperature fell just above freezing. It would be a long day.
Weeks earlier the younger volunteers packed it in; many were seen crying while others uttered profanity for the first time in their lives. No
leadership were to be seen. Their absence only enflamed ill will beyond the breaking point for many.
Newspapers ran the gamut from bored paragraphs in the financial section to laughingstock mockery in front page banners. TV reports, viral
internet exaggerations and word-of-mouth jibes swelled to a boil and finally went silent. It all came down to this sullen day and the eviction of a
handful of religious devotees to be followed by a slow-motion demolition of the headquarters.
For over 100 years this had been the Lighthouse Corporation and the central religious authority of Kata-Foy and his followers.
Kata-Foy was a charismatic man; charming, sincere and a convincing public speaker. His teachings ranged from pamphlets, booklets, books and
magazine articles to dramatic public speeches at convention centers across the globe.
Religious opposition to Kata-Foy had been extreme and often ad hominem. "Why should any devout christian with access to a bible swallow
fanatastic lies about space alien manuscripts hidden beneath the Great Pyramid?"
Yet, many had.
7 million true believers read and listened. Moreover, they believed. The message Kata-Foy had made clear to any who would purchase his writings
and view his full color charts was plain enough.
Humans were due to be collected soon from Earth in a colonization of other planets. Jesus and the Hebrew prophets of old had explained it; others had garbled the facts and destroyed the clarity. The "true" message had been co-opted and misinterpreted by religious fanatics for their own purposes.
Or so Kata-Foy had said.
The Lighthouse Corporation had but one purpose and that was to restore what had been lost. Many human messengers had been recruited and deployed. Meeting houses were built and filled with listeners, teachers and students. Disciples were instructed and apostles sent forth.
Decade by decade the movement grew. Many embraced the central doctrine and a few grew impatient and left.
Then, abruptly, a scandal brought everything to a halt.
Kata-Foy had been exposed beyond any plausible rebuttal. The alien documents excavated from beneath the Great Pyramid in Gizeh were stolen from Brooklyn Headquarters and turned over to the press. A trusted volunteer at the Lighthouse, Randy Judhaus, had been the whistleblower and thief. Lawsuits, accusations and prosecution soon followed with Judhaus finally exonerated and Kata-Foy serving time in Federal Prison for mail fraud.
The millions of dollars in Lighthouse bank accounts had vanished. Elders and Deacons had fled without a trace. Even the hardcore believers who had defended without question were driven silent.
As the day wore down and the final elderly volunteers looked back over their shoulders at the silhouette of the building that had been their home for decades, a loud whistle blew and the demolition crew entered the structure to plant the charges.
Local news outlets eager to film the implosion for the ten o'clock news perched on neighborhood rooftops with telephoto lenses and trite scripts rehearsed to perfection.
But, the implosion never came.
At precisely 6 p.m. a process server and an attorney arrived and served the Cease and Desist order to the foreman of the crew. He scratched his head as he read it before giving the signal to abort.
The curious and eager crowd that had swelled in the past hours booed and wandered away.
The ten o'clock news filled the vacant time slot with speculations, interviews with attorneys and the mayor. Something big had intervened. Facts were sketchy. Apparently a brief had been filed with the Supreme Court by Kata-Foy's legendary attorney, Heywood Cunningham
and a ruling had come down 5 to 4 in Kata-Foy's favor!
The conviction had been "unconstitutional".
This was immediately seized upon by many as a sign that a conspiracy against Kata-Foy by religionists had been at work.
Within a month the reversal of conviction and counter-strategy by Cunningham had landed
Randy Judhaus in jail for theft of intellectual property and a libel case against nearly 200 news outlets had been undertaken successfully.
Five years after that October surprise the Lighthouse Corporation had exploded into nearly 9 million followers worldwide. Official histories of the fraud documents had been explained as lies and scurrilous misrepresentation of the genuine artifacts by unscrupulous men.
Even though document analysts had pronounced the heiroglyphs poor recreations, the Latter Day Saints had filed a "friend of the court" document supporting the claims of the Lighthouse and its subsidiaries. Jehovah's Witnesses included themselves in their own amicus filing.
A series of public lectures at prominent convention centers sprang the astounding news. Within 2 years of the anniversary of the ill-fated shutdown the Alien ships would return to collect the faithful decendants and the unblieving mutant hominid enemies would be exterminated lest they continue to pollute the Earth with their lies.
Thirty years passed. Kata-Foy died on a passenger train near the Grand Canyon. Heywood Cunniham had wrested control of the Lighthouse Corporation away and installed himself at the new president. He fired the board members but retained their names as "active" members. Later he formed an Association for evangelizing his new message.
The Reformed Kata-Foy Students Association released their latest study book. EXPOSING THE LIES of our ENEMIES before the Great Day of RETURN was sold at local meeting houses and carried door to door by eager neophytes.
Randy Judhaus continued his work debunking the official history of Kata-Foy's malfeasance and lies. Ex-members and apostate turncoats quietly expanded their own message of personal devastation and disillusionment to the public.
Five new buildings had been purchased by the Lighthouse Foundation and religious Institute in Brooklyn just within view
of the Bethel Headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses. The buildings had been purchased from the Governing Body of the Witness religion for nearly
20 million dollars. The Witnesses had fallen on hard times. Competing dogmas had driven their numbers down. Donations dried up.
On a warm day in July the sidewalks were teeming with pedestrians hurrying to and fro as the traffic blared and squeals of taxicab brakes punctuated the air.
East Bound sidewalks sported signs by the Jehovah's Witnesses; "Millions Now Living Will Never Escape this Overlapping Generation."
West Bound sidewalks were festooned with Kata-Foy followers' signs; "The Return of Kata-Foy brings Life to our Galaxy Soon!"
Passers-by shrugged indifferently and plodded ahead ignoring the signs. Mostly. Some stopped to listen or receive doctrinal pamphlets.
On any ordinary day one man might be holding in his hand the warning of an impending Armageddon on one side of the street while another just across the busy street was holding his own pamphlet listening to the story of the return of Kata-Foy.
Brooklyn, from space, was being observed by curious eyes.
End.