Conversations with the Light Bearer (Religious Satire)

CHAPTER V - Just Another Day of Exorcism

CHAPTER V

JUST ANOTHER DAY OF EXORCISM

The next evening, Father Henry and I took a stroll along the downtown slums. The yellow lamp posts flickered disturbingly, while the air reeked of the foul stench of evaporated urine, both human and bestial. Naked and half-naked children ran across the cracked cement, their bright laughs providing a stark contrast to the swallowing gloom. Some of the residents took a peek through their glassless windows, and perhaps I thought, that they wondered why a priest and such a well-dressed gentleman would be lost in such a dingy neighborhood. For a moment, I wondered as well.

"What are we doing here again?" I asked in my usual suit and tie.

"The child, Vincent. The child." Henry was sporting a black suit as well, but with a clerical collar instead. Nothing much I could do about that.

"Oh yes. The child."

After making it past the cockfight pen and all the drunkards surrounding it, with their towels over their shoulders and their bets raised up high, Henry finally located our destination. A crowd seemed to have taken root outside the house, drawn by a peculiar voice screaming and shouting from the second floor window.

"Father Lim!" the bulky woman at the door said. "Thank God, you're here! Come! Come! Please come in!"

Once inside, we made our way through the living room, the kitchen, then up the rusty, spiral staircase, shaking precariously as we took each step. Inside the crammed room, there was a little girl strapped tight to a chair, about nine years old, growling and biting as she tried her best to escape.

"Please Father," the mother begged. "Help her! She's been like this for a week!"

The priest nodded, and stared directly at the girl. She shot a look back, and then at me, almost inhuman-like. "Papatayin natin sya!" she said in-between gnaws, her voice deep and croaky.

"Dios Mio!" the mother said, making a cross gesture multiple times. "Is that the Devil's tongue?"

I chuckled. "No, ma'am. I believe that's Filipino."

"Silencio!" Father shouted as he showered the girl with Holy Water. "The Lord God commands you to leave this child!" The girl screamed and continued to curse.

I tried to suppress my laughter. He was just too good.

"Tessa," Henry continued in a firm but reassuring voice. "Please leave the room and lock the door."

"Father?" the mother replied, trembling in fear.

"Leave the room. Your daughter is possessed by a very powerful demon."

"Will she be all right, Father? Will she—"

The priest held her shaky hands together, pulled a rosary out of his pocket and placed it above her open palm. "Yes, dear. We can save her. The Lord God is on our side. But for now, let us handle it from here," he said, and quite convincing too. "The best you can do, sister, is pray. Recite a thousand Holy Marys and a thousand more Our Fathers."

The mother, with gleaming, hopeful eyes, bowed, said her thanks, and finally left the room to begin her prayer vigil. Finally it was just me, the priest, and the possessed child.

"I think you overdid it," I said plainly. "I don't think the last part was necessary."

Henry began drinking the Holy Water. Apparently, it wasn't Holy Water at all. It was gin, with a hint of lemon. "The hell it was necessary. The old woman would have bothered us the whole night."