April 21, 2013

Vinca returned by mid-morning, as promised, a bundle under her arm. Pastor Jeremiah stood from where he'd been reading a story to the children. “Mavi!?” She greeted him with a hug that had the keeper of the Guesthouse gasping, scandalized, and swung Onan up for a hug. “Hello son.” She put the bundle down, then let Onan down, picking up Leticia for a hug.

“No need to ask if you were successful.” He picked up the bundle, sniffed it. He did not know why she liked the stuff, but he'd learned to at least tolerate the way this coffee smelled, even if it tasted like the water that'd run through manure. “I am glad to see you return.” He hefted it. “It seems a bit light this year.”

She smiled. “I told you, next year.”

So she had. “Ah.” His heart compressed at the thought. He added the bundle of coffee to her smaller box. “So.” He picked up a mug that'd had tea in it, put it down, at a loss for what to say. After a decade of marriage, his wife could still do that to him.

She smiled up at him, touched his arm and looked at the front of the building, “We should get going. The nearest tram stop is at the end of the block, and if we miss this one, the next won't be for an hour.” She put down Leticia, picking up the heaviest of the boxes and heading for the exit, balancing it atop her head.

He picked up Leticia and handed a box to Onan, taking the last of the boxes, following her.

#

The tram dropped them by the cathedral entrance. Vinca smiled thanks to the people who helped them unload. Pastor Jeremiah left his family waiting at the entrance and went within, looking for someone to help him get their things to the Archbishop's palace. Within the building, he stopped, struck as always by the scents and the stillness of the sacred space. Air made faint susurrus noises as it traveled the space, stirring the incense and making dust motes dance in the morning sunlight that came through the narrow windows at the head and the sides of the building, at the far end, the altar stood, unostentatious, plain even, simple stone, carved with vines and flowers, the top coming to about his waist.

Here was where it had been placed, when the Pachem came to Dinc. The stone was from Bindleshift, had come with the Pachem from the other world, and Pastor Jeremiah bowed to it respecfully before passing it by in search of a clerk or another pastor.