My First Meeting with Rama 39"Well, you asked if I could handle it and I did. I guess
that makes me pretty open."
"Pretty open so far. But wait until we get to the good
part."
"You mean there's more?"
"Plenty! What if I told you the world was coming to an
end and used what's available to prove it to you-simply,
scientifically. If it made sense, would you accept it?"
"What would you use, the Bible ?"
"That and other things. Science, prophecy, tradition,
history, predictions, headlines, and news media. You
name it; they all help prove my point."
"Well, is the world coming to an end?"
"Not next week ... but soon."
"Rama, I don't think anybody with half a brain is going
to believe that. When I was a child, there were rumors
about the world coming to an end in 1960. Here we are
now in 1974 and we're still going strong. You just can't
believe this nonsense anymore. Besides, why worry
about it?"
"The point isn't to worry about it; let's do something
to be prepared for such a thing happening ."
"And how do you plan to do that? Maybe you think
you can do something from here on top of the Andes
Mountains, hiding and running away from God knows
what. You Jesus freaks are all the same; you think you
have all the answers. 'Let's do something to be prepared.'
Ha! Even if the world came to an end, how could you
prepare for it?"
"There are many ways, Charles."
"Oh, sure, and you can do it, right, Rama?"
"Wh y no t^7. "
Her smile slowly disappeared. She wa s so serious, so
sure of herself, I had to laugh. I found her interesting,
but I was losing interest in flying saucers and talk about
the end of the world. I began scheming to get her into
bed. I wasn't sure yet what approach to use on her; I