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seemed to get along just fine.
I been on my best behaviour.
You done all right.
Anyway, I don’t much care for the witchy shit they got goin on. I ain’t in all my life seen a slug pass up a meal. That girl’s cursed.
Cursed? Moses says. The friar thinksshe’s blessed.
These religious types think everything’s blessed. Dump a bucket of shit on their head, and they’ll thank God for it not being two buckets. But I’ll tell you something.
Abraham points the toothpick at his brother to make his point.
I’ll tell you this, he goes on. Whatever hell those walking dead came out of, I ain’t interested in gettin cozy with the girl they’re afraidof.
You got a vision, Abe. There’s no denyin it. The way you see the world – those eyes of yours ought to be enshrined somewhere important.
Abraham casts a suspicious gaze at his brother, as if unsure of the true thrust of the remark – but he grins proudly despite himself.
But it don’t make any difference, Moses says. Because tomorrow when we leave, we’re takin her with us.
Who?
The Vestal.
What in the hell would we do that for? If you want to steal some holy bride, why not go for one of the other ones? Maybe one that knows how to cook.
We ain’t stealin her.
That Ignatius ain’t gonna be very happy with you stealing his cannongirl.
I said we ain’t stealing her. The friar asked us to take her somewhere, and we’re gonna take her.
Where?
North.
How far north?
Colorado Springs.
Colorado? Shit. Is it gonna be snow on the ground?
It’s a likelihood.
You know I ain’t good with the inclement weather. I got bad circulation in my legs.
You’ll endure.
What’s in Colorado anyway?
A citadel.
A what now?
A church.
Another church?
That’s right.
Jesus, we’re spendin a lot of time with the gospel. Whathappens if I come out the other end all godified and priesty? What happens if I want to take the vow?
Moses chuckles.
I wouldn’t worry about it.
Abraham is quiet for a while. He picks his teeth with the wood splinter and looks thoughtfully at the beams running across the roof of the stable.
What’re we doin this for, Mose? he asks. Really now.
It’s a mission, Moses says. Wewanted a mission and we got one.
Abraham nods.
But let’s be clear on this, Abraham says. You were the one that wanted a mission. It was never me.
Moses nods.
Fair enough, he says. My mission, then.
Abraham considers a while longer.
All right then, he says finally. I’ll come along with you on your mission. It’s a brother’s duty, ain’t it?
*
And later, wellpast midnight when Moses cannot sleep, he rises from the crib and steals out of the stable to stand under the coal-black sky and listen to the shrill
cricket-song stretched taut and incontrovertible over the desert.
He sits heavily on one of the picnic tables and folds his hands as though waiting politely for someone to bring him sustenance. His beard is dark and heavy.
Soon someonedoes come. It is the Vestal Amata, still dressed in her white robes, and she sits down across from him and looks into his eyes.
He has not been, for many years, the kind of man whom a woman approaches. It used to be different, long ago, before things changed. Then he was cleanshaven, tall but still lithe. He knew how to
be playful. He knew how to juggle oranges found underneath a laden orangetree. Now he has forgotten much of who he was before. Now he stomps and rages and draws lines he dares people not to cross.
He is a man of hard laws and hard action, a man sharpened on the grit of constant violence. He is a barbarian, he knows.
So he does not know what to make of a woman who approaches him alone in the middle of the night. He suspects again this Vestal – her slightly sneeringmouth, her red hair, her eyes that do
not look away in fright at the world and its barbaric things.
We’re taking you, he says to her. My brother and me. We’re settin out tomorrow.
Ignatius told me, says the Vestal.
She confronts him with her obstinate silence. He does not know whether he seeks refusal or gratefulness, but he finds that he has no gambit against the woman who doesnot reveal her game.
Sunrise, he says. Just after sunrise.
That’s fine, she says.
Colorado, he says. That’s where we’re goin. I don’t know if the friar told you. It’s a citadel.
He told me.
It’s in the mountains. It’ll be cold. Bring what you have. We’ll make room.
Fine.
We’ll keep you out of harm.
That’s fine.
She
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