Eduardo's Arc

Chapter 17 of 60

The ledger sat on the kitchen table for two days before Eduardo let himself open it again. He turned to the back where he had written what he still owed. The numbers were smaller than a month ago. They were still bigger than what he could pay. He had been living on what was left from selling his father's tools. That money was almost gone. He had debts, and no work to feed them. He knew what he used to do when the money ran low. Cards. A borrowed name at the auction yard. A favor that came with a hook in it. He shut the ledger and stood up. The old ways were closed to him now by his own hand. He needed something the old ways could not give. He drove out to the pale house past the edge of town. Men had spoken of it in low voices at the feed store. A radiant place with curved walls, stained glass in every window, a small cross on the roof between two carved wings. He parked at the gate and took off his cap. He climbed the stone steps and knocked. The angel woman opened the door. She was small and blonde, in a white dress, and her eyes were steady on him the way a candle is steady in a still room. She did not ask his name. "You've been standing outside a long time," she said. Her voice was soft and even. "Come in." He stepped into a room full of colored light. He held his cap in both hands. "I've paid down what I owe," he said. "But I have no work. No one will hire my name. I came to ask God what to do. I don't know how to ask." She pointed to a chair and sat across from him. She folded her hands. "Then I'll ask with you," she said. "Close your eyes." He closed them. She prayed out loud, plain and slow. She did not ask God to send him money. She asked that his hands be given honest work, and that he be shown the first door, not the whole road. When she was done, he opened his eyes. She was already writing on a scrap of paper. "The feed store owner needs a man to haul and load," she said. "He told me last week. He said he'd take someone he could trust with a key. Your name came to my mind while I prayed. Go tomorrow at first light. Do not be late." He took the paper. His hand shook a little. "Why would you send me to the one man who still speaks well of me," he said. "Because he already knows your word," she said. "Start where you are believed. Grow the circle from there." He drove home with the paper on the seat beside the ledger. Tomorrow he had a place to be, and a reason to bring his hands.