A Place To Bloom

The Church

My plan was to spend a few hours helping to fix up the church, then go back and check on Dune before nightfall.

The priority was the front of the building, as the holes in the plaster made the place look dilapidated. Father Gerson had some plaster in a large paper package in a supply closet along with all the tools I needed: a hammer and chisel, prybar, broom, bucket, and a trowel. There was even half a brick of blue paint, which would prove more than enough.

Outside, I started with the biggest. The wood beneath was bleached by the sun and worn smooth. I chiseled away at the edges to make a clean join and swept away any dust or loose debris before slathering a thick layer of white goo over it. Once that was smooth and the corners looked good and weren't about to peel over, I started on the next one. I continued to patch holes when I heard a voice behind me. Coming around from the side of the building was Father Gerson along with two boys, I guessed eight and ten. "Roederek," the friar said with a thick Goloagi accent, "you and Walren clean up all the debris you can see. Caleb here has knocked out a bit, and there's more here," he pointed, "and over there as well."

He pushed along a wheelbarrow, and the two boys began to toss in pieces of broken wood, tar, and broken plaster. He then set about hammering away at the hinges of the destroyed gate, clearing away the remnant of broken pieces while I continued to work on patching holes.

"What happened here?" I said.

Father Gerson continued hammering as he spoke. "Rioters."

"They set fire to Walren's bedroom!" Roederek complained as he tossed some debris into the wheelbarrow. He was a stocky Herali boy with his hair tied in a ponytail at the back.

I turned to the smaller one, a Saeni boy with sandy-green hair cut short. "You must have been scared."

The smaller boy stood and looked at me without speaking.

"He don't talk," Roederek explained. "I wasn't scared; I coulda taken 'em."

I smiled at him. "Oh yeah? How many were there?"

Roederek shrugged. "I didn't get a look. Father Gerson made us hide in the cellar while him and Anyanna put out the fire."

"What were they rioting for?"

"Who knows?" the friar replied. "Caleb, do you mind helping me with this?"

I went over to where he stood, at the side of the building adjacent to a rotted-out wooden fence overgrown with dried, dead vines. There I held the new gate in place while he aligned it to the hinges and hammered down the pegs. He then swung it in and out, good as new. "Very nice!"

"I'm sorry," I said, "but how can you be in this community and oblivious to the point where you don't know what the rioters were upset about? I don't say that to judge; I just don't understand how that can happen. These things don't just spark from nowhere; they build. Don't they?"

He let out a humpfh and straightened his rotund self out. "You won't get any answers from these people. The ones who'll talk to you don't know, and the ones who know are the ones responsible."

"That's not what I mean. I'd... I mean... if it were me, I'd be reaching out to the community. Regularly. When I came up here, everything was closed and locked up. I'd have the door open."

"They'll steal things," Roederek explained.

"Then they'll set foot in God's house. Besides, I didn't see anything irreplaceable in the front lobby, and that's probably the worst that's going to happen. More to the point, opening up to the community gives you visibility into what's going on before things flare up, maybe even give you an opportunity to step in and see if you can help work something out so that the riot never happens. I don't know, but I feel like that's a better way to go. Were you able to shelter anyone hiding from the violence?"