Eduardo's Arc

Chapter 27 of 60

Eduardo woke before dawn with the ledger on his mind. Two names. A town that still crossed the street when they saw him coming. He needed more than his own work to move the wall. He needed to stand where something bigger than him could see him, and be seen. He walked out past the edge of town to the angel monument. The stone woman stood on her base with her wings spread and a book open in her hands. The words on the page said thoughts became things. Ask, believe, receive. He read them twice. He took off his cap and stood in front of her. "I'm asking," he said. "I've got two names. I need a third. I don't know who." The stone did not answer. He waited anyway. The sun came up over her shoulder and warmed the side of his face. He felt no wings, no voice. Only the quiet, and his own breath, and the weight of the cap in his hand. Then he heard talking on the path behind the monument. Two men. He knew one voice from the pale house with the cross where he had prayed. The wizard in the blue hat. Aldric. The other was older, rougher, unfamiliar. Eduardo stayed where he was, behind the base of the statue. "Eduardo," the older man said. "The gambler." "Not anymore," Aldric said. "He works dawn to noon at the feed store. He paid the old man back. He paid the bank. He carries a ledger and shows it every Friday." "Word travels slow on a man like that." "Word travels slow because people like you keep the old one alive. I've watched him. He drinks nothing. He gambles nothing. He asked the angel mother to witness him and she said yes." The older man was quiet a moment. Eduardo pressed his back against the stone base and did not breathe. "You'd vouch for him?" the older man said. "I would." "Then bring him by the bunker. I'll look at him myself." Their steps went past and faded. Eduardo stayed against the stone until his hands stopped shaking. He stepped out from behind the monument. The path was empty. He put his cap back on. He had asked for a third name. He had not asked for that one. Guardian Noble screened people by instinct, and he had been wrong before. A man had died. A hinge had come loose on his door without cause. Whatever the guardian was watching for, he would look at Eduardo the same way. Eduardo walked home with the ask sitting new in his chest. The angel had heard him. So had something else. He would go to the bunker. He would stand in the doorway and let a man who had been wrong before decide if he was wrong again.