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of irony that the Dark Man did not understand until years later, the priests had named her Mary. |
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That was not all that the English fathers had changed. They had forced the fisherman to enroll his shy son in their school where, in the guise of saving the boy's soul, they had tried to beat an appreciation of their foreign gods into him with long wooden rulers and heavy strands of rosary beads. Later, the priests started to come to the huttwo of them; they always traveled in pairs. Both men had grown fat off the work of the islanders, both had bad skin and bad breath, and both had hot eyes that never seemed to stray very far from Mary. |
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They had told Joseph they came out of concern for his son's soul. They said the boy was obstinate and rebellious. They said he refused to say his prayers or to give up his totems and charms. In truth, it wasn't souls they had been interested in. |
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One afternoon the fishing had been exceptionally good and the Dark Man and his father had come home early. They were lugging three large red snappers over their shoulders and wearing strings of red and yellow hibiscus flowers around their necks. Joseph dropped the stringer of fish outside for the boy to clean and then walked into the shadowy hut. Inside he had found the priests. One was watching while the other quivered in ecstasy over Mary's unconscious body. |
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At first the priests had tried to convince Joseph that Mary had seduced them. But they had a hard time explaining why her nose was broken and she was unconscious. When lies didn't work, the men gathered up their black robes, fell to their knees and begged, reminding Joseph of God's laws of compassion and forgiveness. Unfortunately for the fathers, Joseph's gods knew only one law. |
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One at a time, Joseph dragged the men outside by their heels and tied them to a tree. He took the long boning knife away from his son and used it to slit the two men open from navel to neck. When the English police arrived, they found the Dark Man's father calmly sitting by an open fire pit, roasting one of the priests' liver. They never found the other liver nor either of the men's hearts. |
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