. . .

“I will burn,” says Bahlum. “I will be burning. And I will think, ‘perhaps this is holy fire. The fire of holy righteousness and second-hand vengeance.’ I will plummet onto the back of a human target. He will stand as totem and proxy to the Mayans. He will scream.”

“What will he scream?” asks Ixchel. She is almost drooling at the thought of the warmth of being on fire.

“‘Help help!’” Bahlum says. He savors it. “‘Somebody. Anybody! A fiery orbital jaguar is using my mass to decelerate from space!’”

“There is nothing to be done,” says Chan. “Poor man! It is the righteousness of Heaven.”

In this Chan is incorrect.

That’s not the righteousness of Heaven at all! In fact, it is arguably an act of vice.

I don’t know where a magical jaguar in a decaying orbit around the Earth would even get the idea that this represents some sort of righteous Heavenly vengeance unless it is letting its personal biases and interests cloud its moral judgment.

The actual righteousness of Heaven isn’t anything like jaguars falling out of orbit. It’s more like —

Like, um, um. Hm. Like —

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