CHAPTER IX. THE DAUGHTER OF THE EARTH

   November stripped of the slow flakes of mist with which Knights Hill dressed, giving beggars some privacy, while paradoxically Luke was almost naked, and a white ghost shook his heart to put it in its right place after the battle. Morning mist turned into shy dew, with icy face occasionally from frost, some shred of wind and a gentle drip of rain that persisted for the rest of that month. The rays of the red-haired woman, like a splendid sun that could end up settling in his insecure fallen leaves, were melting his frozen heart. Lucy approached him with determination, and before she could say anything, he began.

─ "You are so beautiful and I could have broken your head." – He said sobbing.

─ "You wouldn’t. My mother has just explained to me what has happened here, who you are or what your name is. But let me introduce myself. My name is Lucy Rivers."

─ "I'm Luke Prancitt. Do not rely much on me, just in case."

─ "According to what they have told me, Luke, here nothing has happened. If ever you are considering questions about yourself, remember that nothing happened, or I am lying, you really seem to have done something. Fight with us. Do they seem to you little reasons to trust you?"

─ "I've done more things, Lucy. I've fought some men and I have even given one of them a beating. Well, I was one of the six who did it. "

─ "Have you beaten any women?"

─ "I haven’t. But you only have my word."

─ "And besides your words I have that glance in your eyes, your tears, your heart that I begin to see naked, as I almost see your body. Your heart has taken off the disguise that was hiding it and now you start to wear new clothes and who knows in what costumes I will still see you. Forget your anguish, Luke. I seem to be watching the skin of a man of integrity. Don't let the spectrum of who you were and no longer want to be ruin the rest of your life."

─ "You are wise, Lucy. I might talk to you again. I have to go to my house, there, in Knightsbridge Street, where I live with my brother. At least to get dressed. And I could come up again."

─ "Your brother must not see you in underpants."

─ "I can put on the clothes I have just taken off. It's all almost broken, but better that nothing it is."

─ "Luke, from here you can see my tent. I have female clothes, but it will not be noticed. Underpants and a shirt I can give you."

─ "I guess it's better. And soon I can give them back to you.  I’ll go to my house; I will get dressed and will give the clothes back to you."

─ 'Then come to my tent."- And they went there. Lucy told her mother that Luke was going to enter a second, for she was going to lend him some clothes.

    It was a large and comfortable tent and at one end he really saw lots of clothes, part of which he could put on now. In fact Lucy told him that she had three shirts and three pants to choose. And he chose a pair of jeans and a white shirt and was sobbing while he got dressed.

─ "Luke - she said-, it suits you well to be bald, but I know that you wish your hair grew once again and you can leave this man you feel disgust about behind. Have patience and soon you'll have hair and you can come up here for a while every day. I'd like to continue to see you and I think you also want to see me and us."

─ "I would like to see you every day. And all of you. But Lucy, do not rely on me quickly and if you see that son of a bitch may come back, flee from him, hide forever."

─ "You have never hit a woman and you won't start now."

─ "But I can do harm to your fellow men."

─ "What you really need now, Luke, is someone who trusts you. In fact I wanted to ask you something, whether you would now have dinner with us."

─ "I’d love to, but I do not know what they will think of me, and I don't want to leave you without your meal."

─ "I would like you to share our food. And what will they think of you? What they already think. The six of us are grateful. Thanks to you, tonight we can spend here and it would be a pleasure that you dined with us. But I want to tell you something more. Luke, I have not had any man in my life, and I can tell you, however, I do know what it is to love, but not to be reciprocated. I'd like to spend the night with you, I want you to stay here by my side, in this tent."

─ "Gosh, Lucy, do you know what you're saying? Who wouldn't want to sleep with you, next to such a beautiful woman? But look at me again, I'm a son of a bitch."

─ "I wouldn’t ask a son of a bitch to spend the night here with me. Whatever you have been, remember that you already left all that behind and you are no longer that man. You are really an extraordinary man. And that unique man, that gentleman, is the one I ask to sleep with me."

─ "And what would your mother think?"

─ "Now at dinner I will tell her. I think that she will be on my side. You still do not know her. But you have not yet responded. Do you want to spend the night with me?"

─ "I agree. I'm going to spend the night with you and promise to not do you any harm. If there is something good in me, it has to be for you. And we can see each other every day. I swear that you won't be only a one-night stand. Here you'll always have a friend. I know that by your side I will not be an asshole. I will see my brother tomorrow. Tonight I'll stay here."

─ "Amen. Come on, let's dine."

   It was already November 19 and it would not be the only time it would be an important date for him. The five were around the bonfire as a dense fog surrounded them. Seeing him come Mistress Oakes smiled to him and spoke to him.

─ "Those clothes suit you well, Luke."

─ "Thank you. Mistress Oakes, right?"

─ "Madeleine Oakes, yes."

   And everybody introduced themselves. Luke at the end: "my name is Luke Prancitt.", he said. Lucy spoke then:

─ "He is going to stay here to have dinner with us."

─ "Welcome then - said Mistress Oakes – to the dinner with beggars. I hope you like hamburgers. We have more than enough for today and tomorrow."

─ "Sit beside me, Luke" - invited Lucy. And they sat on the ground, their faces to the west.

   For Luke it was a pleasure to know he was there, having dinner with beggars, and he had something more to say.

─ "You are all wonderful. It is a long time since I last felt that I am at home - and he added something else, looking at John and referring to Miguel-. Love him always, John. The man who sits beside you deserves it. And you, Miguel, give him also your love for life. I'd like to see you always so in love."

─ "Don’t be afraid, Luke - John said-. When I fell in love with him, it was clear that my heart would love him as long as I live. I don't know where it can walk forward, but if it is wise, it will keep its passion until the end of my days."

─ "And John also deserves that I say the same thing. We are a jealous couple and we often argue, but his name will lie forever next to mine"- and they kissed again, for the first time without fear in front of Luke.

─ "Thank you. Thus I want to see you always, deep in love."

   Dinner continued with them telling their day and Luke listening to them and absorbing information and wanting to eat more than one night with his neighbors. There did not seem to remain any trace of the previous battle. They ate laughing, thinking they were friends and fellow mates. Suddenly Lucy spoke again.

─ "Mom, Luke is going to stay here tonight."

─ "And where is he going to sleep? Under an elm-tree?"-  She asked.

─ "He will spend the night in my tent. We will sleep together."

   Olivia became worried instantly and didn't know what to say.

─ "Lucy, my daughter -She finally said -, are you going to spend the night with a skinhead?"

─ "He is not now, mom. Next to me is only a gentleman. I don't want to hurt you but I am already an adult and..."

─ "Lucy – Olivia had to think very fast -, you know that I am not an example of cohabitation. Years ago, I said to myself that I would respect any decision my daughter would take. You are of age and you have the right to choose. I could not do it - and returning to him, she said-. You have a jewel with you, Luke. Remember the man who I think you are and let her not get any harm from you."

-"I will respect her. Thank you Olivia." -He said shuddering, again noticing the value of all those humans.

─ "Give me a kiss, Lucy. You are what I love most in this world. Live your life, of your choice, not minding what your mother can think."

   And after kissing, Luke and Lucy went to Lucy’s tent.

   The night began to undress. Even the fog was stripping slowly revealing sometimes a star. It was the time of Orion, the Hunter. They didn’t see it nor would they have recognized it, but perhaps they saw some of its bright stars while fog continued stripping. Finally in the interior of the tent, Lucy spoke.

─ "Luke, I would like to make love to you."

─ "Good heavens, Lucy, everybody would like to make love to a woman as beautiful as you?"

─ "A beggar."

─ "I don’t care you are a beggar. You are the most beautiful woman I have seen in my life. But you do not know me, Lucy. Not only the skinhead that you have seen tonight, though from now on, for me and for them I will say bald men. It is that you know nothing of the previous man I was. I think I've been a good man, but you know nothing of what I was."

─ "A gentleman. In what I can see of the man that you are now, not a bald man, you have already ceased to be, but an extraordinary human being, I can imagine what you have been before, Luke. But I want to go a little further. Sometimes in my life I have imagined myself with a man like you and have even seen myself having a son with him. I want a child that looks like the gentleman I'm seeing."

─ "Lucy, you don’t even love me - and insecure he added-, right?"

─ "I could one day fall in love with you. And with no risk for your life. I am a beggar and you are not nor should you start to be. We live very close. I can take care of a child alone, but if you want to also take care of its education, its games, you only have to climb the hill every day and see your child."

─ "I would certainly take care of him. Lucy, what you've said may be crazy, but I would also like to have a child with you. But in that case I would be responsible for it and would live with it and of course its mother. If you want us to conceive a child, ok, but then I'll remain here, with you, with all of you."

─ "Then let’s not talk anymore, Luke. Let’s have a child and tomorrow you can think how to take care of it. My mother will understand me and so will my mates. Let's talk no more. Let’s have it."

   Night became truly naked so that with the only light of their skins there was enough light for the beginning of that magnificent couple, which still continues and I hope it is forever. And now Luke also in the street, they were seven; waiting one day for an asshole to be transformed into the eighth rose. They loved each other and began to feel and be and they got ready to think that one day they will be three. They hardly slept that night but the light of dawn woke them aware of what they already were, two matched beggars, and the third and the seventh slurped that powerful light without fog, and began to speak.


 

   And thus came the dawn of November 19, a cold dawn, undressed, of insufficient light. And the fog that had previously hurt the moon, set it free at last, with clear marks of having been bitten, devoured. It was decrepitude of an injured moon, but at dawn it was the goddess of the celestial Olympus. Lucy and Luke had planted the first seed so that the stars would not have any fear of being born together and of becoming a constellation of several stars.


 

  Coming out of the tent, they found Olivia by the bonfire, a great early-rising, and went towards her.

─ "Good morning, mom." - said Lucy finally.

   Luke also greeted her ─ "Good morning, Olivia" - with more fear.

─ "Good morning, daughter, love. Good morning, Luke."

─ "Mom, I have to tell you several things. And I'll start. Luke wants to stay with us, and even though I told him that he needn’t know the streets he wants to come. And dine here every day and be our seventh mate."

─ "Then be welcome, Luke, and do not fear. I see Lucy’s eyes shining and I want to continue seeing her bright and happy."

─ "Thank you, Olivia. Never will I hurt your daughter. I will always love her. And I will take care of her. I promise you."

─ "I have to tell you a few more things. Mom, I don’t even want to say we are going to be, but we are, because Luke and I are already a couple. We don't love each other yet, but give us some time."

─ "What can I answer, my daughter? Luke, I hardly know you, but I can see deep inside you a wonderful man. I always dreamed that my daughter had one day a partner really chosen by her heart, an option I was not given. Yesterday when I saw you I could not imagine it could be you but now I know that you are my son-in-law. Welcome then to my family. And if you see that for two or three days I cannot speak, do not mind me. It has sometimes happened to me. But then I will often talk to you lovingly, because you're my daughter's boyfriend and I want to ask you both how things are going."

─ "You're great, mom. And I have something more to say. If you do not understand, I will take it. I've had enough respect of you. And Luke also. But there is something else. Last night Luke and I were trying to conceive a child and maybe you are soon a grandmother."

─ "Holy heaven, Lucy, now I can only cry. But who am I to say anything if you want to have a child with him? Make your life what you want to make it; I'm going to give you my blessing."

  The three continued for a while crying and talking about the creature that would make the family bigger, thinking of names, imagining him run and play in the streets or in a house, taking care of his education and his future. Olivia only added that she wanted to take part in all that.

   Then Luke walked away. He had told Lucy that since that November 19 it was Sunday, and his brother didn't have to go to college, he would enter the house in Knightsbridge Street to change clothes and speak with James. In two hours he would go with her for the first time to the street. Now I have a wife, a mother and soon I will have a child. Come on, Luke, do not chicken out, he encouraged himself while climbing the stairs and entering his house. Not correct, he changed it; my new home is above and opposite. I will enter my brother's house. And there James was, sitting on the sofa and reading a book. When he saw his brother he looked at him surprised by the new clothes Luke was wearing.

─ "Hi, James. I know that you're watching me arrive with different clothes. Now I'll tell you. It is Lucy who has lent me, the most beautiful woman in the world. First I'm going to take a shower and change my clothes. Good, and I will burn some things that I do not wish to be one more minute in this house. Then I will speak with you."

    Twenty minutes later there was Luke again, dressed in his old clothes. His brother had noticed how he burned the recent ones, some books and stickers in a chimney, surely that of the kitchen, watching the smoke.

─ "Here I am again, brother. Yesterday my life has been transformed. And I'll tell you. But first and foremost, I want to ask you a question and do not be afraid to answer. Be honest, James. The question is: what have you thought of me the last six months?"

─ "I was afraid to talk to you of what I thought, because I wasn't sure that you would answer. But seeing you bald, with those clothes with which yesterday you left home, and listening to your comments, I thought that --and he was brave and finally told him – you were a skinhead, weren’t you?"

─ "I was actually a skinhead. I appreciate your sincerity, James. I was really rotten. But I am no longer that. I will never again be a bald man, as I will say it from now on. Look how rotten I was that yesterday I climbed Knights Hill with intentions, nor I myself know with what intentions, but they could have been even murderous. And suddenly life came to me calling me strongly. And now I'm going to stay as a beggar up there, because I have mates, I have a partner and soon I may have a child. Now I will tell you all, James, but do not suffer because your brother is a beggar. Suffer in any case if someday once again he is the son of a bitch that I have been and don't want to be again. Begging is very respectable."

─ "I will not be contrary, Luke. Tell me calmly anything you want to tell me, for your brother will understand and respect you. Now speak, and whenever you want, you can stop, but knowing that everything you want to tell me I'm going to listen without ever being a hindrance in my brother's happiness"

─ "I will summarize my life since May."

   And Luke then began to tell him a shady story, from his meeting with Brian Philisey and the football match he had attended till he reached the day before. His brother saw him crying and finally told him.

─ "I'm glad that you're telling me. I didn't know what to tell you, Luke. Now go to yesterday. I understand that everything is already past and any future you've chosen will be understood by your brother. Nothing I will object to the facts that you have a partner or that you want to be a beggar."

─ "I do nothing but cry, James. Lucy’s mother has told me something similar. I've been for a few months despising everyone and suddenly I only get comprehension in return."

─ "I want to meet my sister-in-law. I guess they will not object to my going up there tonight."

─ "I had dinner with them yesterday night. I don't know whether they always eat at the same time. But come at 9. I want you to meet Lucy. And now I will tell you what happened to me yesterday."

    He began to tell everything from Miguel and John’s innocent kiss in St Paul's square, the first way up to Knights Hill, the words Miguel had addressed him, back to Churchway and the conversation with the bald men, his second way up, the fight, Sebastian’s arrest, up to Lucy coming with her aura of redhead star and how everything had changed. A night of love with her and the conception of a child, breakfast with his mother-in-law and his firm decision to continue with them. And there he finally stopped.

─ "It is a beautiful story. I really have to meet my neighbors. Wait for me tonight. And do not fear me. I only have to go out to the balcony to see you. Go on with your life, Luke".

─ "Now I leave you, James. Lucy and I have to go to the street. Tonight I will tell you how it has been. Thank you for everything."

   And he went back to Lucy, who was waiting for him and she took him to St Mary. Near the Church where once his father had worked. What an irony, dad, he thought, I'm where you were. Where our family started now begins mine. And there sitting next to Lucy, as he has told me, he felt a little shame, but he was never ashamed of being accompanied by that beautiful and brave woman. She also talked to him about them all; told him how Olivia would speak with the others to tell them that Luke was one of them now, that they were a couple and they would probably have a child. And he was knowing why, and not only Lucy, none wanted to go away from the street, not if some of them remained there. But that first day, hard as they tried, they did not get any food. Then they would have dinner with the others, but they did not succeed on the streets. It was an exception that they were all there. But I will tell you why later. For Luke it was a successful first day, he was getting to know this life and his new mates a little better and he took the irrevocable decision of staying longer definitely there. Extremely tired, hungry but with increasingly clear ideas, they decided to return to the hill. When they arrived, only Mistress Oakes was there. The others would arrive little by little, but she spoke to him.

-"Welcome, Luke to this second dinner with us, and to the time you wish to stay here. Olivia told us all and the truth is that the six of us like you now. Is a pleasure to see you smile and see the joy in my granddaughter's eys, because so I call her."

─ "It is a pleasure to be your mate, Mistress Oakes. Something Lucy has told me of you, some of your story, of every story. I like to know that you're the daughter of a priest, like me. And I am sure that your parents were like mine, simple people, extraordinary people, who gave us everything, and with greater or lesser faith, they also gave us their beliefs, their vision of the world. It will be a pleasure to talk to you carefully of them and of whatever comes up."

    As they were speaking, Olivia returned and who gave a kiss not only to Lucy, also to Luke, which he gave back. Immediately Miguel and John returned, and in a few minutes also Bruce, as usual well stocked. Dinner would not be scarce for them and also that night they would eat without fog. They made a bonfire and he sat next to Lucy and the others sat around. And he knew then many anecdotes and part of the story of all of them, which they were telling. The six assured him their friendship, and repeated Luke’s presence there was a pleasure for them. Luke was loosening up and talking with them. They were about to finish dinner when he saw his brother on the balcony of his house in Knightsbridge Street. He beckoned to him to come up. And in five minutes, James came up the hill and sat down with everyone.

─ "This is my brother, James Prancitt." - Luke introduced him. And everyone then introduced themselves.

intro

─ "Let me kiss you, Lucy - said James-. I can see that we are now brother and sister-in-law. And I live opposite. Whenever you need anything, come upstairs to my house to ask me for it. In addition, you're more beautiful than I thought. But my brother has been good at describing you."

─ "Luke has also been all day talking to me about you. It seems that you love him very much and I am quite pleased. It will be a pleasure, James, to be your sister-in-law."

─ "And what can I tell you, Luke? Never be afraid to tell me your routine, your daily troubles. I live very close. Please don’t stop coming now."

─ "Especially if I regret..."

   But James did not let him finish.

─ "I have been all day thinking of this, Luke. I don't know if this life is for you, or how much you can resist, but do not think I will reproach you. Live the way you want to live. I only ask you to keep in contact with me, to tell me how much you love her, how much you love them, how things are going."

─ "So it will be, James."

- "Sit with us." - Mistress Oakes invited.

─ "It is a magnificent starry night." - said John.

   He had already eaten and did not take part in the dinner, but he started to know them. He felt reassured knowing they were well sheltered, they would always have a warm fire around and they would become friends, and knowing them extraordinary people, finally stood up, sure that his brother was now in the best of hands.

   Every day Luke was getting to know them better. Soon he noticed that Lucy, his wife, was pregnant. But the situation in Knights Hill was becoming unsafe. Bart every day threw them insults from Knightsbridge Street below, especially to Luke. He could never forget what, as he saw it, he had done. Too much at sight, frightened by Bart or by the possibility of the bald people gathering again, one cold night they started to talk.

─ "When we moved here, we thought that it would be temporary, and the time has really come to go to a different place. What would you think if we moved? Luke?"

─ "I am the least likely to speak, Mistress Oakes, since I am the most recent one and hardly know where we beggars move."

─ "We could return to Wrathfall Bridge." - said John, with the desire to return to the place where his couple had originated.

─ "The Seductress Outskirt is worse every day, John. It would be going out of a danger to get into another."

─ "We could find a better place in Umbra Terrae Boulevard, below." - Miguel said.

─ "That would be the first place where the bald men would look for us if they reunited." - Luke said.

─ "What about a little further, in Blood Cattle Route?" -Bruce then asked.

─ "In Blood Cattle Route or the Outcasts Outskirt there are many people by now – said Mistress Oakes-, and we would still be too close at sight, not only for the bald people. There we would not have sufficient privacy."

─ "And what about moving west, grandmother??" -asked Lucy finally.

─ "I've been thinking carefully and find no place in the west where we can be at peace. But there is a place in the south. Today I've been there examining it and it is a safe and beautiful place although it has its drawbacks. Olivia has already heard me. We have the Outskirt of the Torn Hand. No one lives there..."

─ "I don't want to live next to St. Alban’s Cemetery, Madeleine.-" Olivia interrupted

─ "Gloomy at least."-John said.

─ "But quiet - said Mistress Oakes-. Next to Menhir Bridge I have been for three hours and nobody has come. You only have the company of Millers Lane's neighbours. And there it is not easy for us to be found or for people to roam there. The close presence of the cemetery will make us sure that they leave us alone. I assure you that it is a beautiful place, in communication with the entire city, but away from people. Even James – she said watching Luke - will not have to walk too much for coming to see us, or to see his nephew – she winked at Lucy and Luke- I'm sure your child will come soon."

   In the end, it was not easy to decide but they took the unanimous decision to move to the Outskirt of the Torn Hand and departed on December 15. They inspected the landfill and found new and better tents. Only Mistress Oakes and Olivia remained in the old ones. And Lucy and Luke used a tent for the first time and they learned that soon they would be three and their child was coming. The alders and ash trees were whispering every night accompanying them as sentries, happy to hear their conversations.

   Light, fog and winds jostled for making color contrasts in the new outskirt they inhabited. And a few days later they also met a white cat named Tessa that originated the microcosm of the cats I met and that soon I will speak about. Luke lived in a new room in which he dwelt with his wife, now pregnant, and his mates. But he thought that still something he lacked: to have the security that the bald men would not take over his life again. He didn’t see Bart now, but maybe... Luke had to feel surer and one day in January, he decided to go to the prison to talk to Sebastian Fraser. He didn't know whether he would like to see him, but he wanted to ask some questions. The prison was in the neighborhood of Fairfields, but that day he could afford to go by bus. And he headed to the west.

   Sebastian was much thinner, paler, dejected and humiliated. When Luke saw him he smiled and approached him.

─ “Hello, Seb."

─  “Hello, Luke. What a surprise to see you."

─ "Sebastian, I will be frank. I am a beggar. I stayed with them. I met my wife. I'm going to have a child with her. If you want me to go away now, tell me and I will leave you alone.  Surely it isn’t agreeable for you to see a beggar."

─ "To tell you the truth, I’d rather now speak with a beggar than with a skinhead. They would remind me that I am a murderer and it can be you who objects to talk to me. The trial was held and I can tell you: I am guilty, Luke, and I still have some years to spend here. They have all come to see me, Brian, Bart and Bill. I don't know anything about Gareth. Maybe he has thought it was better not to know about us and go to another city. But there is no trace of him. In any case, I am pleased to see you and to know that you didn't do anything and you're now happy."

─ "Are you going to do anything against me?"

─ "Luke, at the time we could have felt you betrayed us. We thought that you chose the wrong army, but you fought and you didn’t lack courage. They are more concerned about what Gareth did, or didn’t, for he didn’t come."

─ "I wanted to ask you, I have to do it, and if you want, you can send me to hell. I wanted to know what possibilities there are that our group starts again or a different group appears."

─ "On the latter I cannot say. They could appear. I would not be responsible for that. As for our group, look, you are a beggar, I am in prison and Gareth has disappeared and it is clear that he does not want to return. We're half out of circulation. And as for the other three, they all have come to see me in jail. Brian and Bill seem relieved and looking forward to resuming a life without dangers. They don't want to end up where I am. But I'll tell you this, Luke, be careful with Bart. He will not resume our group with them, but he could make a new one. And in any case, be careful for you. He will not easily forgive you fought against us. I would say that he won't dare to hurt, being alone, the people you love, but if it's only you, he will. Be always careful of him."

   They were talking a little longer, but what Luke wanted to know he had already found out. Only Bart seemed a danger, and to the best of his knowledge there were no other skinheads in the city. He went to see Sebastian several times and spoke with his mates of the possibilities they had to be attacked again. But it was a relief knowing that he had already closed that dark part of his life and now he could really return to the true path. Being with those monsters had been a parenthesis. Now he had to tie his future with his former past.

  A few days later, John met a neighbour, of a religious fanaticism, who began to talk to him. Emily Harris she was called.

─ "I've heard that you live in sin with a man."

─ "For me the word sin does not exist, but only what is right or what is wrong."

─ "Your body is a temple. You should not defile it."

─ "And can’t you sanctify it giving the temple what it is asking you?"

─ "What you do is against nature."

─ "Excuse me if I ask against whose nature. According to my nature, I would be against it if I was with a woman."

─ "You are impossible. But you will regret it."- said the woman as she walked away shocked.

   But after Emily Harris, several followers of the country church came to the Outskirt of the Torn Hand. Perhaps they had heard the aforementioned say that they needed some spiritual advice. Some devout women such as Peggy, Rita or Violet went there to evangelize some lost sheep that they thought needed evangelization. The seven heard them with attention, but more confident of what they believed before. One day Miguel spoke to Violet.

─ "It is not necessary to be evangelized."

─ "Go and preach my word around the world," saith the Lord. "A Gospel is good news and as such we want to spread this news to the world."

─ "Yes, without a doubt it is good news for you. But not for me.  If I have a few ideas, I will not try to impose them, often forcibly, because I know that I have news that has given me happiness."

   Perhaps the rumor was spreading that they were an impossible to gnaw bone. And one day there came Mr. Elmet Ferrison, a widower, and Miss Arabella Randall, laconic except when she wanted to talk about an idea that, for her, was fundamental. They talked to everyone and even got a couple of tents to spend the night with them, or some more. They talked about everything, placing catechism among their words. To one of Arabella’s comments, John replied.

─ "You have been 2000 years concerned about the body and not about the soul."

─ "We also talk about the soul and many concepts with which you seem to agree: love, redemption, conscience. But God did not want certain things to be done."

─ "Look, Elmet - said Miguel-, there are beliefs that don't make any sense. You try to transmit God as love, as a father and... God cannot claim to have created me with a nature to require me to behave otherwise. Or He can do it. But then there is no reason for me to love Him. He can send me to burning hell, but even there I would continue not loving Him, if He has wanted me to live as He has not created me. If I had children I would allow them to live the way they want to live. I can't believe that God, whose existence I do not deny, has created the world as you see it."

   They remained there because they believed that alongside these pagans they would earn the Kingdom of Heaven before, martyrs who heard their wicked words, sharing bad and little food, uncomfortable homes and they even perceived the divine word better in the shadows of their tents. They felt God better listening to the thoughts of the ones hostile to Him...

  But they finally went away knowing their words were useless. And a few days later Bruce came accompanied by a beggar who he had met in the street. He was tall and dark-haired. He was dirty and tired. He did not feel at ease with himself. He introduced himself as Wayne Dives. He was talking with them for a while and they noticed he felt dissatisfied. A bad moment in his life had taken him to the street and he wanted to leave it soon. He was with them for a month and it was very clear that they were mere acquaintances, not friends. Not even his mates, but he was friendly and polite. One afternoon at the Basilica Mistress Oakes and Olivia were speaking of him, and the latter asked.

─ "For years I’ve been hearing you say that one day we will be eight. Do you think that Wayne is the eighth?"

─ "He shares our conversations and listens to us with respect, but you know he wants to leave the streets. I believe that the eighth will be someone who really wants to stay with us. I don't think it is Wayne. I don't know whether we will have to wait much longer, but we still await him."

   And they said no more. Wayne Dives was with them all that February of year 29. Lucy's pregnancy was going well and he encouraged her. He had his own tent and slept next to Miguel and John, on the south. He always talked with a bit of nostalgia. He wanted a house, some money and some food. He treated them well but he clearly did not identify with them. And meanwhile he never lost the habit of gambling. He frequently visited the racecourse and saw the horses before betting. And in early March one day he won a good quantity of money with which he could leave the street ipso facto. In fact he said all this with contempt, almost laughing and left them forever. He never came to see them again and they soon knew him mixed up in several profitable businesses that made him even rich, but from then on Wayne Dives was known as the beggar who never became the eighth, the false beggar.

   Wayne had just gone and on Sunday March 11, Lucy wanted Luke to know Wrathfall Bridge, because she many times had heard him say that he wanted to see the place where Lucy had slept. And that afternoon they started walking from Mill Bridge, south to north, on the eastern outskirts. Blood Cattle Route was then deserted and reaching Arcade Bridge, Lucy said.

─ "Under this bridge my mother spent her first night on the street. I was not born yet."

    Then they were a short time in Umbra Terrae Boulevard, which Luke knew very well. He had gone there frequently as a child, especially to play with James, who that day they did not visit, but to whose house they often went. Instead, they preferred to climb Knights Hill, where they had met. There was Luke awhile as if praying, recalling the battle with the bald men, the fog in which he had known Lucy, the conception of the girl or boy that was already moving in its mother's womb, and his subsequent time there until they moved. Lucy led him to some southern elms and something they stopped to do there, writing in its wood.

   It was already dark when past Knights Bridge they started walking down Wall Street. The Seductress Outskirt was now less dangerous, since it was the area of the hospital, and crime seemed to have been transferred to the west, between that district of Castlebridge and Heathwood.

   And finally they went down to Wrathfall Bridge and Luke knew the eye where Lucy, with her mother and Mistress Oakes, had slept. March had begun warm but they felt some cold, but there was no rain, wind or fog. Watching everything near the river and looking at the universe, Luke discovered a shooting star. Lucy saw it too, and not saying what, something each of them asked. That was the signal for, not having said anything, beginning to touch each other. And unaware of it, they started to undress and make love. The moon was soft, the stars put a backdrop of bright lights over their heads, cold wrapped them up and that eye of Wrathfall Bridge laughed and lit and was a filigree palace for two beggars who, although some food they had taken, forgot about hunger in their desire. They only needed an orchestra to accompany them, but music were Luke’s words, who suddenly said.

─ "Lucy, my darling, and yes, I tell you my darling. I just realize that I love you. I don't want to cry, but suddenly life smiles. You're the most beautiful woman in the world and what I feel for you is deep love. I can’t take any more."

─ "Luke, my darling - she said-, I think that coming here I realized I was in love. And now at last I know that I love you deeply. We just have to see what we can do now. But what each feels about the other was announcing. We will always spend our lives together. Let’s continue what we were doing, but now it's not only our bodies that are involved; finally our hearts are also involved."

  The southern wind began to blow, throwing warmth into their skins with the fan of the night. The stars were perfume and March was a rosary of tenderness to cover them forever, so that night of love became just the first dew for the rain of the rest of their days. They returned early in the morning and the next day they all knew the news, the splendor of two beggars’ love, tender lovers awaiting their child with confidence.

─I have to go, Protch. Tomorrow I will begin to tell you the story of the beggar I am now, but I'd better start around the time when I still was not. Let me ask you: are the portraits of my parents still in the library?

─There they are. Do you want to see them?

─When I brought them here I put them in the library because in that room is where I was happiest.

─They are next to your grandparents. We brought the picture you've seen in the mahogany lounge, and their portraits, and since we saw that your parents were there, we put them very close.

─ How about tomorrow we begin my story there? But remember that I will speak of myself from the beginning, and there is still something of my origins that I don’t know. Tomorrow you could be my storyteller, before I start.

─ And where shall I start, Nike?

─You can tell me the little you know of the former Siddeley and start with my grandparents. And then consider telling me the truth about my parents.

─I have never told a story, Nike. But I will spend today thinking about whatever I have to say.

─You’ll be able to do it, Protch. It is only necessary that you don’t lack courage.