"Well, people of _Orphalese_," Guy went on in his singsong, "the
agenda for the day is first the salvation of we _Orphalese_ on
McGuire's _Mountain_."
("All saved, all of us saved," rolled a murmur from the congregation.)
A lean, red-headed man bounded to the platform and fussed with the
stand of spotlights, turning one of them full on Chandler.
"People of Orphalese, as we are _saved_, do I have your consent to
_pass on_ and proceed to the next order of _business_?"
("Consent, consent, consent," rolled the echo.)
"And then the _second_ item of business is to _welcome_ and bring to
grace these two newly _found_ and adopted _souls_."
The congregation shouted variously: "Bring them to grace! Save them
from the imps! Keep Orphalese from the taint of the beast!"
Evidently Guy was satisfied. He nodded and became more chatty. "Okay,
people of Orphalese, let's get down to it. We got two new ones, like I
say. Their spirits have gone wandering on the wind, or anyway one of
them has, and you all know the et cetera. They have committed a wrong
unto others and therefore unto themselves. Herself, I mean. Course, the
other one could have a flame spirit in him too." He stared severely at
Chandler. "Boys, keep an eye on him, why don't you?" he said to two
men in the front row, surrendering his gun. "Meggie, you tell about the
female one."
The teen-aged girl stepped forward and said, in a conversational tone
but with modest pride, "People of Orph'lese, well, I was walking down
the cut and I heard this car coming. Well, I was pretty surprised, you
know. I had to figure what to do. You all know what the trouble is with
cars."
"The imps!" cried a woman of forty with a face like a catfish.
The girl nodded. "Most prob'ly. Well, I--I mean, people of Orph'lese,
well, I was by the switchback where we keep the chevvy-freeze hid, so I
just waited till I saw it slowing down for the curve--me out of sight,
you know--and I rolled the chevvy-freeze out nice and it caught the
wheels. Right over!" she cried gleefully. "Off the shoulder, people of
Orph'lese, and into the ditch and over, and I didn't give it a chance
to burn. I cut the switch and I had her! I put a knife into her back,
just a little, about a quarter of an inch, maybe. Her pain was the
breakin' of the shell that enclosed her understanding, like it says.
I figured she was all right then because she yelled but I brought her
along that way. Then Guy took care of her until we got the synod. Oh,"
she remembered, "and her tongue staggered a little without purpose
while he was putting it on, didn't it, Guy?" The bearded man nodded,
grinning, and lifted up the girl's foot. Incredulously, Chandler saw
that it was bound tight with a three-foot length of barbed wire, wound
and twisted like a tourniquet, the blood black and congealed around it.
He lifted his shocked eyes to meet the girl's. She only looked at him,
with pity and understanding.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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