as patriotic.
-Not likely to find St. George on one of these," Jago said, allowing the scapular to dangle from his fingers, -dragons being the work of imagination which makes St. George himself something of a question mark, eh? But that's the general idea of 'em. A believer in this or that holy person puts this thing round his neck - or her neck in the case of your Tammy - and I s'pose she ends up feeling holy herself."
-I blame the effing politicians," Selevan said darkly. -They made the world in the state it's in today and that's why the girl's working to get herself holy. Trying to prepare for the end of days, she is. And, there's no one been able to talk her out of it."
-That what she says?"
-Eh?" Selevan took the scapular and shoved it into the breast pocket of his shirt. -She says she wants a prayerful life. That's her very words. ‗I want a prayerful life, Grandie. I believe it's what everyone should aspire to.' As if sitting alone in a cave somewhere and eating grass for your meals and drinking your own piss once a week is going to do one bleeding thing to solve the world's problems."
-That's the plan, is it?"
-Oh I don't know what the effing plan is. No one knows, and that includes the girl. You see how it is? She hears about a cult she can join and she means to join it because this cult - unlike the rest of the God damn cults out there - is the one that's going to save the world."
Jago looked thoughtful. Selevan hoped the other man was coming up with a solution to the problem of Tammy. But Jago said nothing, so Selevan had to speak again. He said, -I can't get through to the girl. Can't even begin to. Found a letter under her bed and they were telling her to come on by and check things out, have an interview here so's we c'n take the measure of you and see if you're suitable and if we like you and whatever else. I show her I found it and she goes off her chump 'cause I'm doing the snoop through her things."
Jago looked thoughtful. He scratched his head. -Were, eh?" he said.
-What's that?"
-You were doing the snoop. I'n't that the case?"
-I got to. If I don't, her mum's all over me like melted cheese on the radiator. She says, ‗We need you to make her see the light. Someone's got to make her see the light before it's too late.'"
-That's just the problem," Jago pointed out. -That's where the lot of you 're going wrong."
-Which's where?" Selevan spoke to his friend without defence. If he was going at this problem of Tammy in the wrong way, he meant to learn the right way at once, and he'd come to Jago because of that.
-The devil of young people," Jago said, -is that they got to be allowed to take their own decisions, mate."
-But - "
-Hear me out. It's part of making their way to being grown. They take a decision, they make a mistake, and if no one rushes like the fire brigade to save them from the outcome, they learn from the whole experience. 'Tisn't the job of the dad - or the granddad or the mum or the gran -
to keep them from learning what they got to learn, mate. What they got to do is help work out the end of the story."
Selevan could see this. He could even run it through his mind and largely agree with it. But agreement was a process of intellect. It had nothing to do with heart. Jago's position in life -
having no children or grandkids of his own - made it simple for him to adhere to this admirable philosophy. It also explained why the young people felt able to talk to him. They talked; he listened. Likely, it was similar to sharing one's secrets with a wall. But what was the point if the wall didn't say, -Hang on a minute. You're making a bloody fool of yourself"? Or, -You're choosing wrong, damn it"? Or, -Listen to me cos I been alive about sixty years longer'n you and those years damn well ought to count for something or what's the point in having lived them"?
Beyond that, didn't parents and grandparents have some right to sort out their offspring, not to mention to determine what the offspring would be