roof. He got a suite up there on the back, "away from the traffic."
Closing the blinds, and stripping off his uncomfortable rough clothes, he climbed onto the king-size bed as if it were a lifesaving raft, and fell fast asleep against the cool white pillows.
Chapter Thirteen
FATHER JIM LOCKED UP St. Francis at Gubbio Church in San Francisco,s Tenderloin as soon as it was dark. By day, the homeless slept in the pews, and took their meals at the dining room down the street. But at nightfall, for safety,s sake, the church was locked.
Reuben knew all this.
He also knew that by 10:00 p.m. - which it was now - his brother would be sound asleep in his own small spartan apartment, in a flophouse building just across the street from the entrance to the church courtyard.
The old rectory had been Jim,s place of residence for the first couple of years. But now it housed parish offices and storage. Grace and Phil had sprung for the apartment, with the archbishop,s approval. They,d even bought the building, which Jim was slowly transforming into a decent hotel of sorts for the more stable and dependable residents of the old downtown neighborhood.
Reuben, in his brown trench coat and hoodie, clawed feet bare, and paws bare, had traveled over the roofs to reach the church, and dropped down into the dark courtyard. The transformation had come over him three hours ago. He,d been fighting the voices since then, the voices calling to him from all around him. But he could fight no more.
He rang his brother now on his cell, a little more adept at handling it now that he had a bit of practice.
"I need to go to Confession, in the church," he said in the deep guttural voice that was now all too familiar to his own ears, but not at all recognizable to Jim. "I need the confessional. I must do it there."
"Ah, right now, huh?" His brother was struggling to wake up.
"Can,t wait, Father. I need you. I need God. You will forgive me for this when you hear me."
Well, maybe.
Reuben adjusted the scarf up around his mouth and pushed the sunglasses in place as he waited.
Jim, ever the devoted and tireless priest, entered the gate and, surprised to see that the penitent was already inside, and maybe a little awed by the size of the guy, nevertheless nodded, and unlocked the heavy wood door of the nave.
What a risk, Reuben thought. I could easily hit him over the head and rob the church of its gold candlesticks. He wondered how often Jim had done this kind of thing, or why Jim,s life was such a round of sacrifice and exhausting work, how it was Jim could ladle up soup and corned beef hash every day for people who so often let him down, or go through the same ritual every morning at the altar, as if it really was a miracle when he consecrated the bread and wine and gave out "the Body of Christ" in tiny white wafers.
St. Francis was one of the most ornate and colorful churches in all the city, built long before the Tenderloin had become the city,s premier and most legendary slum. It was large with old heavily carved scrollwork pews, and walls covered with richly painted and gilded murals. The huge paintings embraced its altar under a trio of Roman arches, then moved behind its side altars - to St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary - and down the sides to the very back, where, on the far right side, stood the old wooden confessionals, each a little tripartite wooden house with booths for penitents to kneel on either side of a central place where the priest sat as he pulled back the wooden panel that covered the screen through which he could hear the confession.
It was not strictly necessary to be in such a booth when one confessed. You could confess on a park bench or in a room, or anywhere for that matter. Reuben knew all that. But this had to be utterly official, utterly secret, and he wanted it this way, and so he had requested it.
He followed Jim towards the first confessional, the only one of late that Jim ever really used, and he watched patiently as Jim took out his small satin stole and put it around his neck, this to assure the man behind him that he was now ready officially to offer the Sacrament of Penance.
Now