you for Harvey. She thinks he's having a spiritual crisis over remembering his wife and kids getting killed. I agree he's having a meltdown, and I agree about what's caused it, but I think she's wrong about what's going on. As much to the point, I have three, count 'em three, other people in the same room who could probably use your help at least as much as he does. I'll keep it brief, but I'm going to sit, if you don't mind?"
"I think we'd better, considering," Anthony said.
They got positioned in comfortable chairs away from the desk, and Anthony waited patiently for Trevin to begin.
"Well, this is awkward, isn't it?" Trevin said with something close to a laugh in his voice. "I think you should know what's going on, but I don't like to talk about people behind their backs. What to say? What to say?"
"When in doubt, pray first," Anthony said.
Right on cue, Trevin came back with, "Or even when not in doubt."
"I stand corrected," Anthony said.
Trevin smiled. It was an old routine, this was, between the two of them. They bowed their heads and prayed together, then sat back in their chairs.
"Long story short," Trevin said, "Joel Johnson and I are watching the new prisoner, Renzo, who's been moved in with your brother so Nurse Chan can attend to the both of them. That's the official explanation. The unofficial reason is that Chan and some of the rest of us are determined to keep Renzo out of the sphere of influence of the guards who undercut all the Christians when it came to Gills. I'm not saying they set out to keep him from converting, but it's pretty obvious they're happy he's a fellow scoffer. For someone of his background, that's deadly. So, we've arranged to have Renzo quartered with Harvey. Oh, officially, another reason he's there is that it's thought to be a good idea to give Harvey the responsibility of helping to watch a foundling."
"Is it?"
"Yes, actually. I think it is. I think it's been good for both of them. But we've hit a bump in the road. Renzo, like most males topside around here, has been quarantined from females his whole life, and like most male foundlings, he's finding that working with a woman has its own, unique distractions, that he has no idea how to deal with."
"What did he do?"
"So far, nothing more than sink into an unconscious leer. But Harvey took it upon himself to explain that this society prohibits leers, and the conversation turned to how men and women are different, and Harvey was trying to explain that men have a primary duty to protect women. Right after that he got gummed up with guilt."
"And you and the nurse are in disagreement on how to handle it?"
"I couldn't tell you. We haven't discussed it. But I got the feeling that she thinks Harvey's struggling with his faith, and I have the impression that he's struggling with his shortcomings as a puny, normal human being in a big, bad ugly world with evil running around in it. There's a bit of difference. But here's the thing. Joel got talking about the cattle herder, and how the men around here feel bad that she got killed on our watch, and Renzo surprised the stuffing out of us by rising to her defense and saying she got wounded by wolves and died even though he took care of her, and accusing us of being responsible for her death because we didn't assign them to work together so he could protect her."
"He still thinks we're tied to the topside government?"
"Seems so. And he doesn't think we're all-wise anymore, and doesn't care who knows it." He grinned. "A promising lad, our friend Renzo."
"So, the three people messed up as bad or worse than Harvey, in your mind, are?"
"We found out that Joel's been feeling guilty about the cattle herder's death, on the assumption that on one of their topside snoop-fests he and Charbonneau might have accidentally made her a target of government suspicion. Theoretically, confirming that she was killed by wolves would cure him of that, especially after we found out she had someone tenderly taking care of her during her last days, but you know how men can be. He's feeling worse about it, logic be hanged. Meanwhile, Renzo, who has seeds of a good conscience but has been badly misshapen morally, is feeling terrible that he didn't save Julia somehow, but he's not coming to healthy conclusions, all the more so because now he has it in his head that Joel was spying on his beloved. Meanwhile, Nurse Chan is acting oddly, which makes me think she's got some massive hidden guilt that's pulled out a bulldozer and aimed itself at her. Or, I could be a drama queen, imagining all this." He shrugged. "At any rate, Nurse asked me to come get you to talk to Harvey before he goes tee-totally insane. I don't think he's in any danger of going nuts – I'd bet he's going fully sane, finally, if you ask me – but we both agreed it would be good to have a chaplain on hand, and you're the poor chap in office right now, so here I am."
"Oh, joy," Anthony said, playing along.
Trevin stood. "For what it's worth, I'm not going to be the least surprised if Harvey and Joel are solidly back on their feet before we get there, and that they might even have Renzo under their wings, and possibly even have him at the foot of the cross."
"Anything's possible," Anthony said.
"With God, anything is possible," Trevin said.
"I stand corrected," Anthony said.
"You know," Trevin said, "We probably ought to be more careful about our little 'I stand corrected' routines. I enjoy them, but someday some poor soul is going to wonder about trusting a pastor who seems to need correcting all the time."
"I don't remember. Have we ever joked like this when anybody else was in earshot?"
Trevin smiled. "I don't think so, but you know it's starting to become a habit. Habits can get a person into a lot of trouble."
"They can also keep a person out of trouble, if they're good habits."
"I stand corrected," Trevin said.
"That's my line," Anthony joked.
Trevin smiled, and escorted Anthony out the door.
"I'm going over to see Harvey. I could be a while," Anthony told the church secretary. "All the more so because I have some other visits to make while I'm over there," he added, after the secretary got an 'oh, your poor brother' look on his face. The pastor was rewarded (if you could call it that) with the secretary giving him a look which translated into, 'Oh, I get it. Your brother is a cover story.'
Anthony thought about trying to clarify, without getting into specifics, but decided to leave bad enough alone.
He and Trevin hadn't made it far when a young woman, running after them as fast as she could, yelled at them to stop. They stopped and turned around. The woman ran up and grabbed the pastor by the arm.
"Oh, Pastor. Come! Evelyn Alcorn was over at the Harrisons' with a bunch of us mothers and kids, and she choked to death on some food, in front of all the kids and everything. And Sandra Wister's trying to be helpful, which is scaring the kids, just to make it that much worse."
"I guess you'll have to do without me for a while yet," Anthony told Trevin, as he let the woman lead him along at a fast walk, back the way they'd come.
"Women and children first. Always," Trevin responded, keeping pace with them. "But I think I should come along and confirm a few things, and pull Auntie Sandra off, and then get word to Lt. Ott and Evelyn's husband. I'm not sure I have it straight. Is she married to Adrian or Nando?"
"Adrian," the young woman and Anthony said at the same time.
"All right. He was out topside, snooping with Charbonneau, last I heard. But let's not tell the family that, OK? He might be safely underground by now anyhow," Trevin said. "I'm just warning the pastor that it might take a while to locate him, that's all. I don't want you fretting if he isn't here in 40 minutes flat, so to speak. Oh, I'm assuming you'll want me for notification duty? Once we have proper confirmation?"
"Yes, thank you," Anthony said.
A teen boy came charging toward them, distress written all over his face and frame.
"Whoa, there, Scott," Trevin said. The boy didn't seem to hear him. Trevin got hold of him and pulled him to a stop. "I take it you're off to get Mr. Alcorn?" he said.
The boy nodded.
> "All right. I'll go with you. But I'm required, in situations like this, to personally check some facts first, so I don't spread rumors around. It's not that I don't trust you, or that I don't trust what Mrs. Carter has said, you understand. In this case, in fact, I'm going to be mighty surprised if I find anything contrary to what you think you know, or contrary to what Mrs. Carter has told us already. But I still need to check, so you come with us for now. It won't take long," Trevin said.
"I'm not sure I should," the boy said. "Mom told me to go get Mr. Alcorn."
"It's all right, Scott. Come with us. In cases like this, it's better to take a few minutes to make sure everything's lined up at this end, before sending for next of kin," Anthony said. "Besides, if you ran over by yourself, you'd have to work your way through the chain of command. Mr. Lexington is high enough up he can leapfrog to where he needs to go, and he's probably who would be assigned the duty, anyhow. Come on, now."
The four of them got to the Harrison home in good time. The scene there was confused, sad, and contentious. Sandra Wister, gray haired and stout, had a struggling child in each elderly fist. She was cooing at them, while people around her were pathetically begging her to let the kids go.
"Sandra, let them go," Trevin said, in a voice of quiet but confident authority that cut through the chaos like laser.
She looked over to confirm who'd talked to her. "Oh, but I'm helping," she said.
"No. You're not. The