A young girl prays for help to find his brother’s missing friend, ‘_____, I know you know what I’m going to ask you, but I’m going to ask you anyway. My brother, he needs his friend.’ This is a ‘paradoxical’ prayer. If the one believed in is supposed to be all-knowing [and all-loving], why is there still need to pray to that being? Should there not be blessings by default already, even without prayers?
She continues, ‘And I know you can’t just let him [i.e. the kidnapped friend] go, because you don’t interfere or whatever. I don’t know the rules.’ This is an ambiguous prayer. There is uncertainty on how much the being believed in is able to help. If that being does not intervene, of what use are prayers? And if that being already knows [and loves] all, and should intervene, why pray at all?
She goes on, ‘But if you could help me have a dream or two, and just see something that could help the police, or me, or anyone find him, I would follow you forever.’ This is a bargaining prayer. There is somewhat shaky ‘faith’ that asks for validation, for there to be full faith. But why not give adequate validation in the first place, to have no need for doubt? Again, if that being already knows all, why bargain at all?
She later complains, ‘_____, wtf? I mean, wtf? I ask you for help, and you give these clues that don’t mean anything. And now this morning, I wake up without any dream at all? Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? You let the [kidnapping] Grabber take [my brother] Finney, right? And don’t tell me that you don’t get involved, because you’ve been giving me these dreams. Unless. Maybe you’re not even real.’
This is a lamenting prayer. There is blame for what might be useless or no ‘signs’ ‘given’, and for ‘letting’ her brother to also go missing, while also questioning if the one believed in is even real, involved in anything at all. (In the story, she does have some vague power to have real-life visions via dreams, but they are not depicted to be divinely given, thus never with them validating her faith once and for all.)
In a desperate move, she pleads, ‘Please, dear _____. Please, please. I’m sorry I said you weren’t real. Please be real.’ This is bargaining again, with who might still be absent. She next encounters the ghosts of other missing boys, who directed to her brother. Those who appeared to help are ghosts, who often get demonised, not anyone ‘holy’ at all. By the end, she surely believes in the existence of ghosts!
