Office of the Reporting Angel
Department of Records
Heaven, June 18

Ida Lewis Dreyfus
Section, Earth
Heaven

Dear Ida:

My sending you a self-addressed envelope was unusual, in fact it required special permission. But I thought you might be dissatisfied with my letter—the opposite of its purpose.

Your comment that U.S. government people might be involved with my Computer requires no response.

As to your letter, I will explain.

The facts in my letter to you are correct. But you are also correct. It would not have been possible for your son to have done all those things, not on his own. He had to have a great amount of instruction, assistance, and direct aid from Departments up here.

Let me go back to 1908. At that time, the High Command, foreseeing the expanding use of electricity and radiation and the development of the nuclear bomb, decided it was necessary to give the human being a drug that would work against excessive anger and fear, by correcting inappropriate electrical activity in the body. In so doing, this drug would help against a host of symptoms and disorders, since almost all of the body`s functions are electrically motivated. It would not affect normal function, sedate, or be habit-forming.

To achieve this our Pharmaceutical Department synthesized a medicine and our Messengers put it in the hands of Heinrich Biltz, a German chemist, who naturally thought he synthesized it himself. When our Messengers saw that Heinrich had sold the medicine to a drug company, they assumed that within a reasonable period of time the facts about the drug would become known. Then they left Earth. As you know, we are busy with more important places in the Cosmos.

Our Messengers checked back fifty years later and were astonished, no-nothing the human being does astonishes-they were dismayed to find that the medicine was almost exclusively thought of as an anticonvulsant. A miracle was not applicable here, but something had to be done. And it had to be done in a way that the human being would consider perfectly natural.

Your son was selected for a difficult assignment from among many candidates. One requirement was a good sense of probabilities, an aptitude that comes with the baby. Your son had that. And he had two other aptitudes—I should say disaptitudes—that made him an excellent candidate. His sense of direction was in backwards, and along with this came a faulty copying device. As you know, humans learn by copying and Jack can’t learn that way. It is usually a disadvantage, but not for our purposes. Since he couldn’t copy, he had to figure things out for himself. In addition, as you have said, he had no ambition. This was also an asset. We didn’t have to struggle with any personal desires.

For our purposes it was necessary for your son to have a great deal of money. It was decided he should make it in Wall Street. While he was making the money there, we could accomplish other things. He could be trained in research, and his ability to communicate could be enhanced. These abilities would be needed later.

I am not at liberty to say more.

Be happy always,

The Reporting Angel

You will hear from me in a hundred years.

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