A Brother's Blood by Michael C. White

Author:Michael C. White
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497690578
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road

14

I CAREFULLY FOLD the newspaper photo and stick it back into my pocketbook. My head is pounding now and I feel hot, like I have a fever. I must be coming down with something. I should go home and go to bed. That’s what I should do. Before I leave the church, I walk up the aisle to the altar to light a candle. For a long while after Ambroise died, though he wasn’t a practicing Catholic, I used to light candles for him. For his soul. I don’t believe in everything they taught you when you were young, but I still believe in hell, still believe that you pay for your sins, if not when you’re alive then after you’re dead. Yet when I get up to the altar I find there are no candles set out. The altar boy sees me, leaves what he’s doing, and comes over to help me.

“You looking for candles, ma’am?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll go look in the supply closet,” he says. He’s about twelve years old, pudgy, with a broad face covered with freckles the size of pennies. If he had no clothes on you could see him as one of those floating angels in the old pictures, the ones playing trumpets at the birth of Jesus. He comes back in a minute with a box of new candles. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.”

“Not too many people light candles anymore.”

“Not as many souls need saving, I guess.” The boy nods thoughtfully.

“Is Father Rodino hearing confession today?” I ask. I figure as long as I’m here I might as well make confession. I haven’t made it for a long time.

“Father heard confession from one to three today. But I could go see if he’s got time now.”

“Never mind. That’s all right. Some other time.”

I light a candle for Leon, then one for Ambroise, too. I get down on my knees and say a prayer:

O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant

to the souls of Your servants departed full remission of all

their sins, that, through our devout prayers, they may

obtain the pardon, which they have always desired. Who

live and reign, world without end. Amen.

At home Mitzi comes over and lays her head on my lap, wanting me to pet her.

“Not now, girl.”

She keeps nudging my hand with her muzzle.

“Go sit,” I snap at her. She goes over to the sink and lies down.

I change into my flannel bathrobe. I pull on two pairs of wool socks, but I’m still cold way down in my bones like a dull ache, the sort that’s never going to go away. I check my temperature and find I’m running a fever of 103. So I take some Tylenol and then go and put the kettle on for tea. I sit at the kitchen table and glance out at the blue-black patch of evening sky I can see through the window. The house seems so quiet and still, the sort of deep stillness that follows a sudden noise. Only then does it hit me that he’s gone, really gone this time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.