SIX

But that was the day our luck ran out on us and was gone. And it was gone because Willie Boy set himself up high and mighty and talked against it, and because I was an unbeliever fallen to Satan. My soul was shrunk and shriveled and rotted with ignorance so that I was glad I was saved from drowning and that we had made a landing without getting caught and put in jail. I didn’t know that the Book was opening for me then and there to show me how Satan and the Lord had wrestled for me and Satan had me tight. I didn’t know I was only saved because drowning would have been the bargain price to pay for my sins, and it wasn’t enough. So the Book opened wide, and a fiery sword with my name on it in fiery letters came down and pointed at what it said.

And it said, For the time is at hand.

But Satan held me tight in his fist with his fingers coiled like slimy snakes around me, and he turned me away so I couldn’t read it.

And it said, And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.

But I did not look.

And Satan bided his time, and when the time came he set me down in the Ursula alongside Willie Boy and he aimed us on our course.

And we never ran a truer course to the Anglesey than that one.