The Old

FAMILY AND OTHER EVILS

2.

As the priest bowed and left the altar of Saint Patrick’s, the congregation sang the last of the hymn.

Frail as summer's flower we flourish,
Blows the wind and it is gone;
But while mortals rise and perish
God endures unchanging one,
Praise Him, praise Him,
Praise Him, praise Him,
Praise the High Eternal One!

All around the church people sat down in their pews, or knelt to pray a moment. Some took out their rosaries, and not a few got up to move to the small alcoves and pray or light candles. After a moment, some headed into the vestibule to say a few words to each other and head back to work, and Lawrence would head back to work as well, but not just yet. They would close up the church soon, anyway, and he would begin his walk from the far west side back into downtown. This was the place where downtown died so suddenly, west of the Towers and all the great buildings. Here the El track gave way to almost blank spots where the city had a foreboding emptiness. If he had not been what he was, it would have been dangerous to wander around as he often did.

Once he’d actually caught himself feeling strangely oppressed and odd, not quite afraid—what was there for him to be afraid of?—and he thought, if I can walk toward the El, if I can walk toward it then I will be back in civilization. And he found himself at last, at an old El station by something that looked like the city again. There was a Dunkin Donuts near the hooded walk up the El platform, and he had to pass a dirty old woman sitting on the sidewalk eating a pizza off the ground. Pigeons came from all over to peck at it with her, and she did not wave them away, and Lawrence felt faintly sick, could not stop looking, and then reminded himself that he was not like other people and he had to walk on.

Today he sat in the old church he remembered so well. And, more from habit than faith, he crossed himself, then genuflected and turned to leave the church, dipping his fingers in the marble holy water font before heading into the vestibule and then out in the world.

His mother used to say that church made her feel sorted out, but church didn’t make him feel sorted. If anything it made him feel weird and discombobulated, and yet it was a weirdness he wanted. He came for it a few times a week. Heading down the steps back onto Lasalle Street, he saw a dark haired woman waving at him.

“Hello,” she said, and Lawrence smiled from the side of his mouth and offered his hand.

“I see you here a few times a week,” she said. “You always come in at the very end.”

“Yeah,” Lawrence said. “Just for a few minutes. You pray here a lot?”

She had a slightly embarrassed look, and the dark haired woman said, “Truth is I don’t really pray anywhere. I just come here to get some connection. I’ve been doing research.”

“Research?”

“I hope that isn’t insulting. I mean, you’re not… are you religious?”

“I’m not an atheist,” Lawrence said. “I… grew up Catholic. I come here to just take a breath. Remember some stuff. You know?”

“Yeah,” she said. “That’s the great thing about these old churches. They’re just here for you. The priest and all, they ask things from you. The buildings are just here. My name’s Lynn by the way.”

“Lawrence,” Lawrence offered his hand. “Or Laurie. Laurie Malone. Just a guy trying to make his way in the world.”

Lynn laughed and said, “Lynn Draper. Just a girl trying to do the same. Well,” she patted her purse, “maybe I’ll see you around next time I’m here. I always come a few times a week.”

“Yes, Miss Draper,” Lawrence said, “I’d like that a great deal.”

“Oh, you’re staying for dinner. That’s great,” Seth said. “We never see you guys.”

He had turned from his computer, and Eve stood in the living room, pacing. Seth said. “Why don’t you kick off your shoes and get something to eat and drink. We can hang out when I get finished with this. Or,” Seth thought, “we don’t have to. You can just crash. You must be tired. Did you come right here from the train?”

“Yeah,” was all Eve said.

“You didn’t even stop downtown and look at anything? No shopping? I can’t believe a classy lady like you didn’t hit up any stores, Eve.”

“Well,” she said. “There’re stores back home. Granddad was serious. He really wanted me to do this, and so I came right away.”

“Had a day off?”

“Yeah, Seth. I had a day off. Say, I actually am going to get something to drink. Would you like something?”

“Nah, I’m good. I just gotta finish working on this laptop. Can you believe this guy was going to send it back to the factory? It would have cost so much money, and I’m only charging about one twenty. It’s really amazing.”

“It is Seth,” Eve said, sounding as interested as she could, and slipping her shoes off, before going down the hall.

“And it’s amazing,” Seth continued, “how everyone needs computers these days, but no one really knows how they work. It’s like it’s our most basic instrument, and everyone says we’re in a computer age, but no one really knows anything about them. They think they’re mysteries but…ooh. Look here! They’re machines—”

Seth suddenly looked up and around the room and frowned. “Oh, you’re gone.”

And then he shrugged and continued his work. People were difficult. He didn’t really understand them. When he was younger, and he thought he did, things had been worse, when he couldn’t tell that people were either shrugging him off or laughing at him behind his back and what they said was either not serious or an out and out lie. His life had been considerably different. In ways that he didn’t like to admit, the death of his parents had been a liberation which had sent him to the bosom of his odd family.

An odd family was a welcome thing for an odd person, and it wasn’t that he understood Owen, or didn’t miss the mark with Lewis. But they never lied to him, and they looked at the rest of the world as an absurdity, just like he did. He always felt safe around Lewis and Owen. With Eve he didn’t feel unsafe, but he didn’t feel at home. He expected her to be like them, but he was always surprised that she wasn’t. Eve was like any other girl he’d known. He couldn’t make a link with her. She was… he tried to think about it… not entirely real. Eve was—

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”

Seth jumped up and ran down the hall, up the stairs to where Eve was screaming. His hearing was good, and her screaming was loud, and so, in a moment, he was in Owen’s large bedroom watching Eve on her knees screaming, as her hands grasped, impossibly, in a way that made Seth want to vomit, a glowing poker, deep orange and black.

Seth threw up his hands and called, “Ashanko!” and at once, Eve tossed the poker away and as it hit the floor it did not burn but resolved itself into a long black sword, hilted in grayish black metal, faintly inscribed in signs which still shone for just a moment.

Eve wept on the ground and held out her raw, red hands.

“Do something!” she wept. “Do something!”

“We can go to the emergency room,” Seth offered.

“No!” Eve growled, tears running down her face.

“But, Eve.”

“Do something. Do a spell.”

“You know I can’t,” Seth said.

“You did that one.”

“Actually, Owen did it,” Seth said. Then he explained. “He had a feeling you’d try to steal the sword. He gave me that word for if you should find yourself…. In trouble. He didn’t detail what the trouble would be.”

“That asshole!” she screamed her mouth full of saliva as she swayed on the floor, holding out her damaged hands.

“Eve, that’s really bad. You need medicine—I’ll go get some ice,” Seth was headed down the steps. “But the ice won’t be enough.”

“Just go!” Eve wailed while she lay on the floor and kept murmuring, “Asshole! Asshole! Asshole…..”