Excerpt

From "Two Brothers"

Daddy Norton had fallen and broken his leg. He lay on the floor of the entry hall, the rug bunched under his back, a crubbed jag of bone tearing his trousers at the knee.

"I have seen all in vision," he said, grunting against the pain. "God has forseen how we must proceed."

He forbad Aurel and Theron to depart the house, for God had called them to witness and testify the miracles He would render in that place. Mama he forbad to summon an ambulance on threat of everlasting fire, for his life was God's affair alone.

He remained untouched on the floor into the evening and well through the night, allowing Mama near dawn to touch his face with a damp cloth and to slit back his trouser leg with a butcher knife. Aurel and Theron slept fitfully, leaning against the front door, touching shoulders. The leg swelled and grew thick with what to Aurel appeared flies but which were, before Daddy Norton's pure spiritual eye, celestial messengers cleansing the wound with God's holy love. Dawn broke and the sun reared suddenly up the side of the house to flood the marbled glass at the peak of the door, creeping across the floor until it struck the broken leg. Daddy Norton beheld unfurled in the light the face of God, and spoke with God of his plight, and felt himself assured.

When the light fell beyond the leg and Daddy Norton lay silent and panting, Theron called for his breakfast. Mama had stood to go after it when Daddy Norton raised his hand and denied him, for He that trusteth in the Lord is nourished by his word alone.

"Bring us rather the Holy Word, Mama," Daddy Norton said. "Bring us the true book of God's aweful comfort. We shall feast therein."

Theron declared loudly that he loved God's Holy Word as good as any of God's anointed, but that he wanted some breakfast. Daddy Norton feigned not to hear, neglecting Theron until Mama returned armed with the Holy Word. She spread it before him, beside his face, tilting the book so her husband could read from it prone.

Daddy Norton tightened his eyes.

"Jesus have mercy," he said. "I can't find the pages."

Mama brought the book closer, kept bringing it closer until the pages were pressed against Daddy Norton's face. "Closer!" he called, "Closer!", until his head rolled to one side and he stopped altogether.

"Make me some breakfast, Mama," said Theron.

"You heard what Daddy Norton said," said Mama.

"I'm starved, Mama," said Theron. She took up the Holy Word and began to read, though without the lilt and fall of voice which

Daddy Norton had learned to afflict on the words. Aurel did not feel the nourishment in Mama's voice, sounding as it did as mere words rattling forth without the spirit squiring them. He made to listen but after a few words paid heed only to Daddy Norton's leg. He crawled closer to the leg and looked at it, watching God's holy love seethe.

"Goddamn if I don't make my own breakfast," Theron

said, standing.

"Theron," said Mama. "Be Mama's good boy and sit."

Theron ventured a step. Mama heaved her bulk up and stood filling the hallway, the Holy Word raised over her head.

"Damned if I won't brain you," she said.

"Now, Mama," said Theron. "It's your Theron you're talking to. You don't want to hurt your sweet child."

In his dreams Daddy Norton gave utterance to some language

devoid of distinction, spilling out a continual and incomprehensible word. He lifted his head, his eyes furzing about the sockets, his tongue thrust hard between his teeth. He tried to pull himself up, the bone thrusting up through the flesh and the blood welling forth anew.

"Listen to what he's saying, Theron," said Mama. "It is for you."

Theron looked at Daddy Norton, carefully sat down.

Daddy Norton continued to speak liquids, his mouth flecked with blood. Aurel and Theron stayed against the outer door, silent, watching the light slide across the floor and vanish up over the house. Aurel's mouth was dry enough he couldn't swallow. He kept clearing his throat and

trying to swallow for hours, until the sun streamed in the window at the other end of the hall and began its descent.

"Tell Daddy to ask God when lunch is served, Mama," said Theron.

Mama glared at him. She opened the Holy Word of God as revealed to Daddy Norton, Beloved and read aloud from the revelations of the suffering of the wicked. As she read, Daddy Norton's voice grew softer, then seemed to stop altogether, though the lips never stopped moving. The light made its way toward them until they could see, through the glass at the end of the hall, the sun flatten onto the sill and collapse.

Mama clutched the Holy Word to her chest and rocked back and forth, her eyes shut. Theron nudged Aurel, then arose and edged past Daddy Norton. He skirted Mama, his boots creaking, without her eyes opening. He strode down the hall and into the kitchen, the door

banging shut behind him.

Mama started, opening her eyes.

"Where's Theron?" she asked.

Aurel shook his head.

"That boy is godless," she said. "And you Aurel hardly better. A pair of sorry sinners, the goddamn both of you."

She closed her eyes and rocked. In the dim, Aurel examined Daddy Norton. The man's face had gone pale and floated in the coming darkness like a buoy.

Theron returned, carrying half a loaf of bread and a bell jar of whiskey. He edged past Mama and straddle-stepped over Daddy Norton,

sitting down against the door.

He ripped the loaf apart, gave a morsel to Aurel. Aurel took it, tore off a mouthful. Mama watched them dully. They did not stop chewing. She closed her eyes, clung tighter to the Holy Word.

"Holy Word won't save you now, Mama," said Theron. "You

need bread."

"Shut up," said Aurel. "Leave her alone."

"Won't save Daddy either," said Theron. "Nor angels neither."

"Shut up!" shouted Aurel, hiding his ears in his hands.

Theron unscrewed the lid of the whiskey, took a swallow.

"Drink, Mama?" he asked, holding the jar out.

She would not so much as look at him. He offered the jar to Aurel, who removed his hands from his ears long enough to take it

and drink.

"Aurel knows, Mama," said Theron. "He don't like it, but

he knows."

Turning away from them, she lay down on the floor. Aurel swallowed his bread and lay down as well. Theron swallowed the last of the whiskey. He leaned back against the door, whispering softly to himself, and watched the others sleep.

Aurel awoke in the early light. Daddy Norton, he saw, had risen to standing and was leaning against the wall on one leg. He held a butcher knife awkwardly, trying to hack off the other leg just above the joint,

crying out with each blow.

He stopped to regard Aurel with burning, red-rimmed eyes, the knife poised, his gaze drifting slowly upward. He shook his head, continued to gash the leg, the dull knife making poor prog­ress, at last

turning skew against the bone and clattering from his fingers.

Bending his good leg, he tried to take the blood-smeared knife off the floor. He could not reach it. He cast his gaze about until it stuck

on Aurel.

"Aurel," he said, his voice greding high. "Be a good boy and hand Daddy the knife."

Aurel did not move. They looked at one another, Aurel unable to break Daddy Norton's gaze. He began to move slowly across the floor, pulling himself backward until he struck against the door.

"Aurel," Daddy Norton said. "God wants you to pick up

the knife."

Aurel swallowed, stayed pressed to the door.

"Shall I damn you, Aurel?" said Daddy Norton.

Daddy Norton extended an arm, pointing a finger at Aurel, his other hand raised open-palmed to support the heavens. He stepped onto the injured leg, listing toward the boy, and fell. His leg folded,

turning under him so that he looked like he was attempting to couple with it. He lay on the floor slick-faced with sweat, his eyes misfocussed.

"Give me the knife, Aurel," he said.

He began to pull himself around by his fingers, turning his body around until it became wedged between the hall walls. Grunting, he rolled over, twisting the broken leg, and fainted.

Aurel shook Theron. Theron blinked his eyes and mumbled, his voice still thick with liquor. Aurel motioned to Daddy Norton, who came conscious again and stared them through with God's awful hate.

"Stop staring at me," said Theron.

Daddy Norton neither stopped nor moved. There was a smell coming up from him, from his leg too. Theron stood, plugging his nose, and stepped over him, taking up the knife, Daddy Norton's eyes following him almost in reflex. "Stop staring," Theron said again, and pushed the knife in.

Aurel closed his eyes and turned his face to the door. He could hear a dozen times the damp sound of Theron pushing the knife in and pulling it out, then the noise of it stopped.

He opened his eyes to see Theron leaning over Daddy Norton, holding what remained of the eyelids fixed with his fingertips, though when he released them the eyelids crept up to reveal the emptied

sockets. Theron twisted the man's neck and rolled the head, directing the face toward the floor. He wiped the knife on Daddy Norton's shirt. Putting the knife into the man's hand, he stood back. The fingers straightened and the knife slipped out. He folded the fingers around the haft, watched them straighten again.

"Theron?" said Aurel.

"Not now, Aurel," said Theron.

"What about Mama?" asked Aurel.

Theron seemed to consider it, then stood and took the knife in his own hands and approached Mama.

"Don't kill her, Theron," said Aurel. "Not Mama."