"Repent sinners! Repent before the vengeance of the Lord descends upon your progeny, like as the locusts he sent to forsaken Pharaoh!"

What locusts could this man be talking about? Were they the locusts that had bitten my dog? I approached the man, seeking more information.

"Your answers lie here, and no where else! Do you think the Lord speaks through newspapers? He does not! Do you think the Lord speaks through saturday morning cartoons? He does not! Do you think the lord speaks through pornographically explicit 24-hour news services? He does not! He speaks through the good book, and nowhere else!"

He kept saying that all my answers lay in this odd little leather-bound book that he kept waving in my face, but he wouldn't answer any of my questions about locusts, he finally I pushed him down and took the book.

What an odd book it turned out to be!

"And The Locust shall come to your dwelling, all those who have not the mark of blood upon their door, who have not lit the fourteen candles of absolution, and have not thrown the log of deception into the pit of transgretion in abeyance of their elders. And lo! The Locust shall swarm upon the home of the unbeliever, lifting it up as with pulley and lever, and transport it, swirling and spinning, storm-like, upon the carpet of insect wing, to the kingdom beyond the rainbow, there forevermore to follow the brick road of the damned."

"And one shall come, and shall appear, and shall give hope to those that walk the yellow road of the valley of the shadow of death. And he shall come to them in a sleek silver ship, and strike down their enemies with slivers of light from his hand, and all shall flock to him and be delivered from the swarms of Locust as his ship conveys them in safety to the moon. And all shall sing the praises of Buck Rogers and forget the name of the God of their ancestors, Abraham and Moses."

"But the horrible swarms, invigorated by the nurturing hand of God, shall learn the ways of interplanetary space, and travel forth to infest the moon-sanctuary in the time of the End of Clocks. Sanctuary no more, you shall return to your ancestral homes, descending from the moonlit sky by rope of silken fiber and horsehair."

"And still The Locust shall follow behind, darkening the skies over your head, darkening the land beneath your step, blurring the horizon that you look to for escape. You shall turn your thoughts to The Lord, and try to remember a time before The Locust descended, but you shall not find such memories to sweeten your misery."

"And The Lord shall have pity upon your souls, and sympathy for your desires and shall destroy you, man woman and child, and feed your crops and animals to the Swarms of Locust before they disperse. Your flesh shall fly away on shimmering wing of insect, your bones shall crumble to dust, and your souls shall flicker out like candle flames, lost in the darkness for ever."

Though the words in this Holy Book explained much of the world I saw around me, and answered many of my deepest questions, it helped me in no way in my quest for justice for The Locust who bit my dog.

My search continued.