Page 7 (1/2)

But the girl leans over and whispers in Abrahah that he can hear the words hiirl says, I don’t always hush like I’irl on the head and stands up again

Atta girl, he says Obeying too irl scurries away, and Abraham turns to find his brother just behind hi in Moses’ expression, because his own grows dark and spiteful

It ain’t blood in everything you see, Abraha to wipe your eyes clean?

Moses says nothing, and he watches his brother walk off around to the front of the church

And so, long after the sun sets and the residents of the Mission San Xavier del Bac have gone to sleep and the snakes have eed from their nests to warm themselves on the stones that still hold the heat of the day, then does Moses, who has trouble sleeping, wander the co in prayer at the altar of the church He tries to retreat quietly, but his unwieldy body crashes into a wooden pew and sends screeching disharmony to all corners of the cruciform structure

Sorry, friar, Moses says and continues to back away

Don’t apologize, says Ignatius, rising fro with his hands folded At this hour it’s only you and me and God Please don’t look so stricken Stay if you like Sinner though I ae words

The harlequin Albert Wilson Jacks – he too was a ain, for the second night in a row, engaged in late and lonely palaver with a ently on the wooden pew, and Ignatius sits near hiolden interior of the apse

When you pray, Moses asks, you pray without words?

I do In prayer, speech is si? I e from Daniel Would you like to hear it?

I reckon I could listen to it

And the fourth kingdo as iron For as s, and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise

Break in pieces and bruise, Moses repeats barely audible

And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay and part of iron, the kingdoth of iron, for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdoood prayer, Moses says, nodding his head and stroking his black beard A fine prayer

It’s apt, Ignatius agrees

We’re all of us partly strong, partly broken, ain’t we?

I would say so But Ignatiusexpression, because he goes on to ask: What happened to your brother?

Abraham?

For a ? But Ignatius clarifies with a hand gesture circling his face What he’s asking is how Abrahaed of physique

Oh, Moses says, that He got into a tussle a few days back The other ood It was out in the desert He walked away – the other guy, I natius nods but says nothing Moses supposes he’s waiting because he hasn’t heard the real answer to what he was asking

The big man shifts in the pew, and the wood creaks uncooes on Abrahairls I reed upon Consensual, Iabout hi – I don’t knohat--

I think I understand, Ignatius says

Moses looks at hi if the man truly does understand A man of God after all – but also one of pretty phrases and toy silences

He was born wrong, Moses says

But you watch out for hih the phrase has twobetween theot a brother’s duty, he says at last