Fr. Luke took a slow walk around the edifice
that morning, he looked at all the windows
on the ground level, and examined the foundations of the building, walking
slowly as he smoked his Pall Malls. He made excuses for his smoking by telling
anyone who might listened that the sweet tobacco aided him in his daily
meditations and reflections.
He
thought he was being clever.
Fr. Luke enjoyed caretaking for the
property, it gave him a sense of pious dignity to labor on the grounds, even if
his contribution was largely symbolic; he felt as if he were playing the role
of Adam, who had been charged to care for God’s garden…that is what Luke told
himself.
Today he was late to his duties, and he
was feeling restless in the oppressive Autumn heat.
He had been detained by one of the
sisters who had become frantic about a bat that had found its way into the
sanctuary, she had brought the entire staff together to capture it.
It was a spectacle, but the groundskeepers
managed to get the job done.
After they had netted it, the sister
insisted that they let the creature go free. Fr. Luke had to come to her aid
when the groundskeepers argued with her, insisting that it was a pest and would
only come back. They told her it should be destroyed.
Sister Anna had a strong way about her, and
the groundskeepers ended up being sorry for having crossed her. They had
brought Fr, Luke in to settle the matter, and of course he sided with the sister
in front of the staff.
He had to ameliorate Sr. Anna, it took
some time to sooth her feelings. He found it a great bother, and in private he
told the head groundskeeper to just kill the bat.
Fr. Luke looked up from his mediation just
in-time to see one of his parishioners driving south past the church in his
convertible, It was Johnny Holiday and he had the top down.
He was glad to see him pass, and he knew
where Johnny was going. He said a prayer for him.
Fr. Luke had been mentoring Johnny since
he was a boy. He was Luke’s protégé, and Luke knew that Johnny had been going
through a spate of trouble recently: drinking, a suspension of studies from the
University where the old-priest also served as rector.
The boy was proving difficult to control,
at a time when the priest needed him to be most in control, and prepared for
the things that were coming in the days that lay immediately in front of him.
Johnny did not appear to notice Luke as
he drove past. He had his eyes on the road and was moving straight ahead.
Father Luke followed watched as he took a right turn past parade field and went
up the winding cobblestones of Waverly Place.
Luke knew he was going to see Colonel
Forrester that morning, he felt a sting in his conscience as he watched his young
friend drive up The Devil’s Spine.
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