Ariel Lightbody sits on a listing bench, digging in her mind. Ada leans into the dark-turning sky. She whispers, Jesus, stooping. Look over and see these feet. Pull the cloth off Death and get up close. Socco walks stealthily toward Ada, who peeks between her fingers. In Death's eye, nothing there. Death's empty. Fingers poke pitch, and I run. But Death is gaining on me. Pretty Mary is hypnotized. Her dramatic husband tears loose a piece of the devastated patio. He raises it over Ada's head. This time she raises her cane to strike. Socco smashes concrete to the ground. Like that! I smash Death to dust. Like chalk, man, I smash his bones. I faint. When I come to, I'm on my ceiling. Hands like bombs to be defused. He goes inside my body.

He raises my hand. He is inside me. He's me. Praise my best cigar! Three cheers for Socco and Jesus! Pretty Mary claps her hands, but Socco motions quiet. All eyes fix in the same direction. Like things imagined, everyone disappears. Give your souls to Jesus, Godfrey bellows from above, and Pretty Mary knows he means it. He staggers to the dispensary, lit by flickering daguerreotype of dying television, cursing hippies on the news. Clyfford Still says watch TV and you miss the angel.



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