The Divine Tease

by Woody Allen

In the Hamptons he was up and dressed at 6:00 a.m. and enjoyed a walk on the cool white sand. Alone on the endless coastline, the huge dawn sky gray and moody, the vast ocean, up and back in its rhythm signifying only that time moves in one direction, naturally his thoughts turned to the eternal and from there to the religious. It was here, under these conditions, if ever God's plan was meant to become apparent, this was the setting. Staring out into the horizon he awaited some sign. When no message emerged, no sacred instructions to go along with his ineffable intuition of "something greater" materialized and God was a no-show he began to miss the city where intimations of immortality were scarce, but in trouble you could dial 911. So much for the divine tease, a hustle for suckers.

6S

Woody Allen is a writer, director, and actor. His six sentences are excerpted from his first novel, What's with Baum?