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It had dew inches ular FXRS, with co and shock rates, plus twin disc brakes on the front -which meant he could corner like a stunt rider when the terrain threw surprises at hier cool He was cold
The sun seeh he kneas still early after noon Darkness was closing on him from within
Eventually he stopped in the shadow of a rockand three hundred feet high Weathered into eerie shapes by ages of wind and sun and by the rare but torrential rains that swept Mojave, the formation thrust out of the desert floor like the ruins of an ancient temple now half buried in sand
He propped the Harley on its kickstand
He sat down on the shaded earth
After a moment he stretched out on his side He drew up his knees
and folded his arms across his chest
He had stopped not a moment too soon The darkness filled him completely , and he fell away into an abyss of despair
Later, in the last hour of daylight, he found hiray and rose-colored flats where clumps of mesquite bristled Dead, sun-blackened tumbleweed chased hiuely re the moisture out of the water-heavy pulp at the core of the plant, but he was dry again Desperately thirsty
As he caentle rise and throttled down a little, he saw a s a highway A scattering of trees looked supernaturally lush after the desolation-physical end spiritual-through which he had traveled for the past several hours
Half convinced that the toas only an apparition, he angled toward it nevertheless
Suddenly, silhouetted against a sky that was growing purple and red with the onset of twilight, the spire of a church appeared, a cross at its pinnacle Though he realized that he was to some extent delirious and that his delirium was at least partly related to serious dehydration, Jim turned at once toward the church He felt as if he needed the solace of its interior spaces more than he needed water
Half a mile from the town, he rode the Harley into an arroyo and left it there on its side The soft sand walls of the channel gave way easily under his hands, and he quickly covered the bike
He had assumed he could walk the last half mile with relative ease But he orse off than he had realized His vision swaue stuck to the roof of his dry rip of a virulent fever
The an to cramp and throb, and each foot seemed to be encased in a concrete boot
Hehe knew, he was on the brick steps of the white clapboard church, with no recollection of the last few hundred yards of his journey The words R LADY OF THE DESERT Were On a brass plaque beside the double doors
He had been a Catholic once In a part of his heart, he still was Catholic He had been s-Methodist, Jew, Buddhist, Baptist, Mosleer any theh the door seeh more than the boulder that had covered the ed to pull it open He went inside
The church was ht Mojave, but not really cooL It shtly sweetish odor of burning votive candles, causinghim feel at home
At the doorway between narthex and nave, he dipped two fingers in holy-water font and crossed hiht them to his mouth, and drank The water tasted like blood: He looked into the white ore, but he saw only water and the di reflection of his own face
He realized that his parched and stinging lips were split He lick them The blood was his own
Then he found hiainst the sanctuary railing, praying, and he did not kno he gotten there Must have blacked out again
The last of the day had bloay as if it were a pale skin of dust, a hot night wind pressed at the church s The only illu flalass containers, and a s down on the crucifix
Jiure of Christ
He blinked his burning eyes and looked again This tion The sacred countenance metamorphosed into the face of Jim s mother, his father, the child named Susie, Lisa then it was no face at all, just a black oval, as the killer’s face had been black oval when he had turned to shoot at Ji
Indeed, it wasn’t Christ on the cross now, it was the killer He open his eyes, looked at Jim, and smiled He jerked his feet free of the vertical support, a nail still bristling from one of them, a black nail hole in the other He wrenched his hands free, too, a spike still piercing each palravity had no claim on him accept what he chose to allow it He started across the altar platfor, but he told himself that what he saas only a delusion The product of a feveredmore
The killer reached hi as
Like a true believer in a tent revival, collapsing under the empowered hand of a faith healer, Jim shivered and fell away into darkness
A white-walled rooht at the s
He drifted in and out of bad dreaained a consciousness, which was never for longer than aover hihtly plump, with ?hick eyebrows and a squashed nose
Soently worked an ointment into Jim’s face, and sometimes he applied compresses soaked in ice water He lifted Jied hih a straw Because the man’s eyes were marked by concern and kindness, Jim didn’t protest
Besides, he had neither the voice nor the energy to protest His throat felt as if he had sed kerosene and then a th even to lift a hand an inch off the sheets
"Just rest," the stranger said "You’re suffering heatstroke and a sunburn"
Windburn That’s the worst of it, Ji the Harley SP, which had not been equipped with a plexiglass fairing for weather protection
Light at the s A new day
His eyes were sore
His face felt worse than ever Swollen
The stranger earing a clerical collar
"Priest," Jim said in a coarse and whispery voice that didn’t sound his own
ù "I found you in the church, unconscious"
"Our Lady of the Desert"
Lifting Jiht I’m Father Geary Leo Geary"
Jim was able to help himself a little this time The water tasted sweet
Father Geary said, "What were you doing in the desert?" "Wandering"
"Why?" Jim didn’t answer
"Where did you co
"What is your na any ID"
"Not this tirave;’ The priest said, "There was three thousand dollars in cash in your pockets " "Take what you need"
The priest stared at him, then smiled "Better be careful what you offer, son This is a poor church We need all we can get"
Later still, Jiain The priest was not there The house was silent Once in a while a rafter creaked and arattled softly as desert wind stirred fitfully outside