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Show M the body was in fulU view. My father's feet, pointing outward. I began to weep. My father's standard black oxfords, the same -two type of shoes he had scuffed twenty'years ago playing kick-the-can and had caked with manure while milking yet had worn to the office after a quick cleaning-up, shoes too pointed to be in style, no longer held straight ahead but tipped beyond restraint, without direction, without purpose. I bit my lip to still the sobbing which arose from my chest. Them a sweetness filled my throat. Ousiders would be holding their breath in horror, thinking of the a insanity of the world At least I knew that it was not some mad accident, some incomprehensible tragedy. Each step had been deliberate, the perparations profound. I had been delivered into this moment with sufficient strength, had been freed of guilt, having renewed my bond with my father and received his blessing. What grace! And what mercy for him, to be spared the indignity of old age and the outstripping of his capabilities. What providence to go quickly, to die holding a banner of freedom upon the rod of uncompromised belief! My tears stopped. Perhaps Ervil LeBaron was somehow a pawn of the Lord - not as he believed, as an avenger - but still picking life when it was ripe for another way of being. Again I listened as Aunt Helga recited the details. There had been five patients in the office when the two women came inside. One stood quietly, the other sat down. Aunt Helga didn't stop to ask1?? what ^ w a n t e d on her way to finish with a patient in the back room. My father came to the first examining room to read a blood-test when the woman stepped into the office area and called to him. |