The Second Coming

what with this tacky heaven and the great black beast of the apocalypse roaring down at him, eyes red, jaws open and ravening, when, wood splintering first then exploding into kindling, he hit the table, then concrete, but not too hard, with one shoulder mostly but with the back of his head some. He shut down, turned off like a light.
    3
    Something was trying to get into his mouth. He clenched his teeth.
    â€œYou were asking for water.”
    He opened his eyes. Something, someone, a person, a woman, a girl, bent over him with a paper cup.
    â€œOkay.”
    He tried to raise his head to drink properly. It was impossible. Pains shot up his neck. Very well. He had broken his neck. He opened his mouth and she poured water into it. There are few joys greater than drinking cool water after a serious thirst.
    The colors came from a stained-glass window set in a roof of clear glass. I’m in church.
    â€œHow did you find me and get me in here?”
    â€œI didn’t. You fell in.”
    â€œFell in? From where?”
    â€œThere.” She lifted her face.
    In the peak of the gambrel roof, where the vent of an attic might be, a square window had been set in the wall against the ridge. He looked at it.
    â€œHow did I get up here on this table or bed or—”
    â€œI got you up with my block-and-tackle.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œHow do you feel?”
    â€œBad.”
    â€œWhat hurts?”
    â€œEverything, from my leg to my head. I think my leg is broken.” If my leg hurts, he thought, I am probably not paralyzed.
    â€œTake these three aspirin and go to sleep.”
    â€œDon’t call anyone until I tell you.”
    â€œAll right.”
    He took the three aspirin and went to sleep.
    When he woke, she fed him a large bowl of oatmeal. Why had he never noticed how good oatmeal is?
    â€œWhat were you doing? Where did you come from?” she asked after a while.
    â€œThe cave,” he said absently. He had been looking at the framed hole in the roof peak a long time. “Do you feel anything?” he asked her.
    â€œYes, a breeze. I had not felt it before. Where does it come from?”
    â€œFrom the cave.”
    â€œWhat’s it for?” she asked.
    â€œTo keep the greenhouse warm in winter and cool in summer. How does it feel to you?”
    â€œCool. But did you notice my—”
    â€œYes, because it’s still warm out.”
    â€œNo, it’s cold outside.”
    â€œI judge the cave air is about sixty degrees. It is said to come from air blowing up the gorge and into the cave mouth and across some hot springs.”
    â€œYes, but did you notice that it is warmer than that in here?”
    â€œYes,” he said absently. “Can you imagine that vent being there all along and you not noticing it?”
    She nodded. “It is both revealing and appealing to me that you cleaned out the vines so my window could catch the breeze from the cave.”
    â€œWhat old Judge Kemp did,” he said more to himself than to her yet watching her closely, “was to back this greenhouse against the vent in the ridge so he could keep it a steady sixty winter and summer.”
    â€œSo the natural air-condition was for fruition.”
    â€œYes,” he said, closing his eyes. “He made a lot of money. It’s warm in here, warmer than the cave. Hm.”
    â€œI know,” she said. “Did you notice a novelty hereabouts?”
    â€œA novelty?” He opened his eyes and followed her gaze.
    There, fitted snugly under the raised sashes of the partition, squatted the huge old kitchen range, no not old but surely new, transformed, reborn. Its polished nickel glittered in the sunlight. Expanses of immaculate white and turquoise enamel glowed like snowy peaks against a blue sky. A fire burned behind amber mica bright as tigers’ eyes.
    â€œYou moved it.”
    â€œI moved it.”
    â€œBy yourself.”
    â€œBy myself. Look, it also has a reservoir.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œThe water is hot.”
    â€œGood.”
    â€œI gave you a bath. To see you was not to believe you.”
    â€œThank you.”
    â€œBut for now, go to sleep. You’re exhausted.”
    â€œVery well. Don’t tell anybody I’m here.”
    â€œWho would I tell?”

I
    IT WAS NO TROUBLE handling him until he came to and looked at her. She could do anything if nobody watched her. But the moment a pair of eyes focused on