A Place To Bloom

The Church

I planned to spend some hours fixing up the church, then go back and check on Dune before nightfall.

Father Gerson had some plaster 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.

I started with the biggest. The wood beneath was bleached by the sun and worn smooth. I chiseled the edges clean and swept away any debris before slathering a thick layer of white goo over it. Once that was smooth, I started on the next one. I continued to patch holes when I heard a voice behind me. Coming from the side of the building was Father Gerson along with two boys. "Roederek," the friar spoke Herali with a thick Goloagi accent, "you and Valren 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 vell."

He brought a wheelbarrow, and the two boys started tossing in pieces of broken wood, tar, and broken plaster. He then hammered at the hinges of the destroyed gate, clearing the remnant of broken pieces while I patched holes.

"What happened here?" I said.

Father Gerson continued hammering, rolling his Rs 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 a ponytail down his back.

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

The smaller boy looked at me without speaking.

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

I smiled. "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 vith this?"

I held the new gate in its place, adjacent to a rotted-out wooden fence overgrown with dried, dead vines while he aligned it to the hinges and hammered down the pegs. The wood squeaked as he swung it in and out.

"I'm sorry," I said, "but how can you be in this community, 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 von't get any answers from these people. The vuns who'll talk to you don't know, and the vuns who know are the vuns 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. 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 work something out so the riot never happens. Maybe not, but I feel like that's worth a try. Were you able to shelter anyone from the violence?"

Roederek looked at Father Gerson, whose blubbery neck wobbled as he thought on the matter. "You can't let anybody in vhen it's like that. You von't be able to tell who's safe and who isn't."