Page 103 - Vol. VI #3

“Vaginal symbols!” shouted Annette, just at the moment when Elwin paused in his labors, so that the words echoed down the street.
“That’s it. Time to go,” said Shirley, with her first smile of the day. “I’ve got to do Stop & Shop be- fore I get the kids.”
“Me too,” said Esther. “I promised Greg I’d pick up a new garbage can. We had ours stolen again.”
“Again?” asked Shirley. “What’s the world coming to?”
“We’ll stay and hold down the fort,” said Eric. “Might as well see it to the end now.”
The two women turned and looked at the church and shook their heads.
“She had the head held securely under one
arm like a football, and her knees were raised in flight, lifting her skirt.”
“There’s no end in sight, from what I can tell,” said Annette, and then she left on her mission.
~
Elwin let the bulldozer idle for a few minutes while he rubbed his hands together to warm up. Even with insulated gloves, his fingers always
got numb. He looked around, and arranged a smile on his face, but dared not give them a Papal wave. The crowd was thinner, but there were still enough of them that if they wanted to they could take him on. He heard the swishing of wings above, and looked up to see a massive flock of pigeons darkening the sky. It was quite the sight. But while his attention was above, a woman darted across the lawn and swept up Christ’s head in both hands and kept on going, speeding lightly across the scraped earth. He opened his mouth to shout at her, but didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t doing anything wrong except that she was running away, which implied some sort of guilt. She had the head held securely under one arm like a football, and her knees were raised in flight, lifting her skirt. The afternoon sun had bro- ken through the cloud cover and the light shone through her yellow hair that splayed out from under a wool cap. She rounded the corner of the church and disappeared.
94
(continued on next page)