Pete found himself waiting again. Now he knew what he was waiting for, but he did not know what he would do when it came.
He knocked on Father Gabriel’s door. “Go away!” came a shout from within.
“It’s me, Father.”
“I don’t care if it’s the Second Coming. I have a toothache. Go away.”
It was in the barn that the stranger came to him.
Pete was watching Neb drink and singing to her. He held the bucket for her and stroked her neck as she lapped at the water with her big pink tongue. She seemed thirstier than usual, and Pete thought there was a sad look in her eyes before he began to sing. When he brushed her, he saw what was wrong. Across her haunches were many long red gashes. Dried blood streaked down her legs. Someone had whipped her.
A little water was left in the bucket. Pete poured it over her. It trickled across her wounds. Pete wiped the blood away. It covered his own hands. He sat in the straw and wept. Neb stirred and tried to twist her neck so she could see him behind her, but she was tied to a beam, and it was impossible. He needed comfort, but she could not turn. There were so many things a donkey’s body could not do. She lowered her head.
A shadow loomed over Pete and he looked up to see the stranger standing in the doorway. “What are you crying for?” the stranger asked.
Pete wiped his eyes, smearing blood across his face. “Brother Louis beat Neb,” he said.
“Tough world,” said the stranger. He coughed against the back of his fist. “Don’t sound like no brother of mine.” With a slight stagger, he crossed the barn to a stool against the wall. He sank down onto the stool so heavily it nearly tipped over.
Pete had been the first to see him the night he came. He had not been this close until now. Now the man looked small and harmless, crouched on his stool with tired eyes. “I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere,” said Pete.
“Some say I look like Santy Claus in reverse,” said the stranger. “Makes me real proud. Mind if I light up?”
“You’ll set the barn on fire.”
He struck a match and lit the cigarette. “I don’t really need permission,” he said. “I was only asking to be polite.” He dropped the match in the hay and stomped on it with the toe of his sneaker.
“What are you doing here?” asked Pete.
The stranger shrugged. “Biding my time. I go here and there. Where I’m called. I’m on a mission.”
“What mission is that?”
“Upheaval.” He grinned, showing crooked yellow teeth. “An enemy shall surround the land and strip you of your strengths.”
“Are you a prophet?”
“Depends how you mean. Do I know what’s what? Yeah, I know what’s what. I seen some things. I’ve lived a life that would break most people in two. I know which end is up.”
“You told them there were three crimes and a fourth would be in fire.”
The stranger inhaled the cigarette’s smoke. Then he blew it out. It formed a cloud in front of his face. He leaned forward and breathed in the cloud, a long, rasping breath. Only then did he speak. “Bunch of bull,” he said. “Make it up as you go along and it sounds as good as the book.”
“They believe you,” said Pete.
“These chumps will believe anything. Until they don’t.”
“But why? Why us?”
“I like to mess with people. And let’s just say like a lot of people I got a little grudge against your outfit. Plus I’m, you know, evil.” He grinned the yellow- toothed smile again.
That was when Pete knew why he looked familiar. He was one of the lost, akin to those people Pete had watched helplessly all those years, straggling across the video screens in the back of the shopping mall. “You’re a criminal,” said Pete. “You’re just a common criminal.”
The stranger rose to his feet so fast that this time the stool did fall over. “I’m not common,” he said. Neb stepped forward, between him and Pete, and gave a warning snuffle. The stranger looked at her and then patted her head to calm her. “Or what the hell, maybe I am. Truth is, I’m just a middleman. I got my higher-ups just like you got yours, and they don’t give me the time of day, just like yours. I put in my time on the streets, sure. You want to know what I do when I can get body and soul together? I deal in bliss. I sell bliss, on behalf of those higher-ups I mentioned. I sell it to the ones that don’t want to put up with a lot of crap to get it. The thing about bliss is it comes in these tiny little white grains. Put them all together and they add up to the most beautiful heaps of white powder. Pure as the driven snow. A little bit of that shit and you’re face to face with the frickin divine, without any of the baloney.”
“I’ll go to Father Gabriel,” said Pete.
The stranger threw back his head and laughed. The locks of his beard shook.
“Then I’ll go to the police.”
“The po-lice! You’re a funny kid with that little moral thing of yours that’s worth about a plug nickel. Speaking of the po-lice, they could have found themselves a whole shitload of bliss around here if they knew their elbows from their assholes. Trouble with them is they’re always casing out the nooks when they should be scoping out the crannies, and vice versa. But those chumps could have died and gone to copper heaven, if only they knew where to look. This place here, see, is lousy with those beautiful little heaps of pure white. One of your guys been meeting up with one of my guys—and I don’t mean to dance the tango. So let’s not go getting up on our high horse so right quick.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Pete.
“That’s how I come to learn about your cozy little setup out here. And then I just had to come have a look-see for myself. Didn’t take long to get the lay of the land. I’m not saying your good brothers don’t get some of their own now and then but mostly they been slipping it to the old geezer. Who, alas and alack, is beyond bliss, if you know what I mean.”
Pete looked down at his hands, where the blood had dried. He shook his head. It was so much worse than he had feared that he was dazed. “Why have you told me this?” he asked.
“Maybe because I got it figured they don’t listen to you. Like I said, I like to mess with people.” He patted Neb on the head again. “Or maybe it’s because you like the mule. And now if you will excuse me, I got my mission to attend to.”