Read Sophia for Free Online Page B

you, Wise Jane? I thought I used to know.
    St. Elizabeth is shoved into a pit of snakes by soldiers. They throw grenades in the pit, but hear her singing hymns. They throw three more but she still sings. Finally they set her on fire. The snakes crawl into the woods and breed more snakes and the snakes grow to eat soldiers’ children in their sleep.
    I go to Tuesday and Finger’s new apartment on the north side and watch them through the window. It is a comfortable condo with brand new carpet and a video game room. Tuesday has given over to the money now like Finger. She wears furs and high heels and eats at restaurants with no prices on the menus, like the one with the shark tank. Finger sells stocks online and plays high-stakes poker in Atlantic City. I call Tuesday.
    Remember when we made love in the sanctuary, I ask her.
    Yes, she says.
    I hang up.
    You could count the bricks in the schoolhouse, Eli. It was something to see. No one taught you anything, you just read Shakespeare in the basement with a joint in your lips. The bad boys put your head in the toilet and made you tongue-kiss a dog. And the teachers slapped you across the mouth for writing with your left hand. Remember, Eli? Remember Mulberry Street School and the tiny room where they put the kids like you?
    I dream the Holy Ghost drives a bus while I give her head. I dream about an accountant in a Wild West town twirling his empty pistols for the love of a girl who’s run away with an outlaw. I dream all the doctors heal and the firemen fight fires and the policemen police and the nurses nurse and the wrestlers wrestle and the dog sitters sit and the kidnappers nap.
    I see the teenage electric fiddle player who plays the Beatles. She’s in college now with large breasts that do not sag. She loves an MMA fighter with tattoos covering him. This man is unemployable with his face full of ink. A gentle man who likes to hear the crack of bones. I’m doing the backstroke now in the ice-cold water under a faint day moon with my eyes full of the red vineyards of France. I never told you but I have dreams of going there. To the place where love began.
    Al and Hal the wizards are here. They hate the pain of this world so live in another. I envy their happiness with fantasy and play.
    Hello, Al, I say. Hello, Hal.
    Maloney, we’ve got a battle plan.
    I am at a banquet with ghosts. White Mike Johnny and the frat boy with the gun are pouring wine for everyone. John Lennon and Joan of Arc bicker about the kind of turkey Napoleon bought. There are peaches everywhere. I am waist high in peaches. Boom is seated at the head of the table with his prayers and his pony.
    I’ve got kids raining pee down on me, Boom, I say.
    Every woman’s a feminist until they need a jar of pickles opened, he says.
    What does that mean?
    Money, says Boom.
    Money?
    Dick Dickerson comes to the boat with a loaded .45. He has no real talents or memories or cares. He’s gone on junk and Everclear.
    I want Tuesday, Dick Dickerson says pointing his weapon.
    Well she ain’t here, I say.
    Declare God doesn’t exist or I’ll kill you, he says.
    I take his gun with judo and make him walk the plank.
    I come to the Starlight for the first time in months and prop my boots up on the table.
    You’re not allowed in here, the cook says.
    I love you, I say. I wish I could remember your name.
    My father was a famous eye man, looked into the soul for a living. My mother a sweet librarian who hid the dirty books on the top shelf. A man orders a latte but he pronounces it luh-tay. The radio keeps predicting rain but there is never rain. Darling is on my mind now. Her sapphire eyes.
    St. Miguel’s last request is to be allowed to pray as doves swoop down and touch his lips. The firing squad shoots him twelve times but he won’t die. They put a bullet in his head and as it passes through he thinks of a little girl he saw eating ice cream on a winter day and how stupid and courageous she was.
    I’m up in a tree