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Show fo(p aside, then taking aim at my f a t h e r ' s face, which was s t i ll unscathed. "She could have k i l l e d me, too, if she wanted to. She pointed the gun r i g h t at me." Aunt Helga related. She had rushed into the room, thinking a car had backfired and found him dead on the floor. "At f i r s t I stepped in front of her, thinking I could stop her. Then I realized that he was.. .dead. . . . o r dying. His mouth was slack and his eyes half-open. And h i s hands were vibrating." I thought of that, with a cramp in my h e a r t . Those hands which had healed so many, had blessed so many heads and bandaged so many wounds were the focal point of his l i f e . They were the l a s t to die, the l a s t to give up l i f e , the elbows propped with l i f e ' s l a s t energy passing between the fingers. "Why do you think she came back?" I asked when Aunt Kathy had dried her t e a r s and was able to talk again. "I think she wanted to make certain he was dead. She must have been under t e r r i b l e pressure to f u l f i l l her mission Either that or she was t r y i n g to h i t his face, • • - • v - i ; - - : - , - r . But she missed. The bullet richocheted off the t i l e floor and went through a wall and then out it through the ceiling. Later, when the accused murderers were brought to trial, state prosecutors revealed the possibility of both motives for the assassin's return. First, there was testimony to indicate that Ervil considered any failed 'military mission' to be a capital offense, punishable by death. The assassin's life, then, depended on my father's dying. Also, the Church of the Lamb of God held a strange, esoteric belief based on !.:' |