SALVE ROMA! A Felidae Novel - By Akif Pirincci Page 0,62

rivelato! Il sangue di Gesù Cristo ritorna da noi! Chi è responsabile?«

The pope, Miracolo, the young priests, they all believed it to be a miracle. It was the blood of Jesus Christ that revealed itself to them. A crackling silence filled the chapel, while different kinds of interpretations of this sign and its reason were discussed. Had maybe something else here changed too? Was there something different tonight from other nights? The clerics let their eyes wander the room and tried to find deviants of the usual picture. As there wasn’t anything to find but the water that had become blood, their eyes finally came to rest at us, well to be more accurate, my humble self. Yes, something was different. There was a stranger sitting next to Miracolo.

The old pope’s face, which reminded of rugged cliff scenery, darkened and the watery blue eyes were afflicted by a kind of tension that scared me. He maintained this expression for quite a while. The gem-bearing cross around his neck blinded me with reflections of the candlelight. I felt like I was taken for a test.

»Portatemi a lui!« he eventually ordered in a steady voice, which sounded like a pistol shot to my ears.

The two assistants did like they were told and pushed the wheelchair very close to us. Only the priest, who had prepared the dedication ritual, stayed at the baptismal font with his back turned on us. I felt that Miracolo was close to fainting, or maybe I imagined him to be because I myself expected to faint any minute. Standing face to face with the representative of Christ surely was no bed of roses. Meanwhile I actually got the feeling that his already hardened face had gotten a few levels harder.

Suddenly – as if there had been a hole ripped into a foggy blanket of clouds and a blazing ray of light had been guided to the earth with unbelievable power – all rigor disappeared from his face. The bushy snow-white eyebrows raised, the mouth corners twitched, and a nice smile appeared in the old man’s face. Muttering at first, but in a steadily growing voice the primate began to consecrate me! My whole body shivered from happiness and emotion and I tried to wait a little before I actually passed out. As when I had started my journey to Rome one day ago, I had expected everything but getting consecrated by the pope himself. Had I known the real reason of the miracle at this hour or even suspected what immense horror was still waiting for me, for the first time in my life I would have opened my mouth towards a human and for safety’s sake I would have asked him for the last rites!

13.

The following incidents I witnessed through a mist of rapture while I carried a continuous smirk, which seemed to be engraved in stone, the whole time. Still totally enraptured by the Holy Father’s blessing, I noticed only vaguely, how he was pushed out of the chapel by the young clerics after the unctuous words. Eventually all of them left the room. Proud on his new protégé, Miracolo now also gave the impression of being under the influence of happiness suppositories.

»You’re a very special person, my son«, he said when we were alone again. »One doesn’t like to utter word »career« in this state, but let’s suppose one did, you certainly would have launched the most glorious career one can imagine. You brought us the miracle. Your steps were guided, so that it would be performed at this place. Maybe it is a sign that by this means the ordeals of the murder victims are honored by heaven. Or else ...«

He pontificated about this topic at large and presented one religiously inspired theory after another. But eventually even he noticed that the recent day had completely ate up my strength as well as my absorption capacity. As he felt the approaching rain as well as I, he suggested I’d spend the night inside the chapel. The warmth of the burning candles would create a cozy blanket for me, he said, and he made me promise to visit him at the pope’s domicile the next morning. Then he said goodbye and disappeared through the door crack.

Only moments later the twilight began to turn into a gold-glistering fog in front of my eyes, which gradually filled every corner of the chapel. The altar cross on the communion table, the holy water with the blood in it,