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By then Herma
"I am doing this for your good and for the good of the Church!" he shouted at her.
He pushed on the monstrous head as Chopilotl, shrieking, ran toward him. The idol toppled over into the water and sank beneath the surface.
Later, his companions told him that she had hit him on the side of the head with her grail.
He did regain enough of his senses to see her, buoyed by her grail, swimming toward the shore. Bessa, Fleiska's woman, was swimming after Herma
"Violence begets violence," Bessa said as she handed him the cylinder.
"Thanks for rescuing it," he said. He sat down again to nurse a painful head and aching conscience. It was obvious what her remark implied. By dumping the idol, he had committed violence. He had no right to deprive Chopilotl of it. Even if he had had the right, he should not have exercised it.
She had to be shown her error and then the example had to ferment in her mind until it boiled over onto her spirit. All he had done was to anger her so much that she became violent. And she would probably get somebody to carve another idol for her.
He certainly had not started out well.
That led to other thoughts of her. Why had he wooed her? She was pretty; she exuded sexuality. But she was an Indian, and he had felt a certain repugnance about coupling with a colored woman. Had he made her his woman because he wanted to prove to himself that he was not prejudiced against coloreds? Was it this unworthy motive that had compelled him?
If she had been a black, a kinky-haired blubber-lipped African, would he have even considered mating? To be truthful, no. And now that he remembered it, he had looked for a Jewish woman. But there were only two in the area that he knew of, and these were already taken. Besides, they had lived in the times of Ahab and Augustus and were as dark as Yemenite Arabs, squat, big-nosed, superstitious, and violence-prone. Anyway, they had not been Chancers. But, come to think of it, Chopilotl was also superstitious and violence-prone.
However, being a Church-member indicated that she had potentiality for spiritual advancement.
He steered his mind back to something which it wanted to avoid.
He had searched for a Jewish woman and had taken the Indian woman in order to salve his conscience. To demonstrate to himself that he had progressed spiritually.
Had he advanced? Well, he had not loved her but he had been fond of her. Once the initial dislike of physical contact with her had been overcome, he had not experienced anything but passion during their lovemaking.
However, during their infrequent but stormy quarrels, he had wanted to hurl racial insults at her.
True advancement, true love, would come when he did not have to restrain himself from voicing such pejoratives. There would be no inhibitions about such because he would not think of them.
You have a long way to go, Herma
And if he did, then why had the bishop accepted him as a missionary? Surely Ch'agii must have seen that he was far from ready.
19
BY THE TIME, MANY YEARS LATER, THAT GORING WAS NEAR the state of Parolando, none of the original crew of people he'd set out with were with him. They'd been killed or had stopped at various areas to carry out their missionary activities there. When Goring was several thousand miles from Parolando, he began hearing rumors of the great falling star, the meteorite, that had struck down-River. It was said that its impact had killed hundreds of thousands directly or indirectly, and wrecked the valley for over sixty miles each way. As soon as the area had been safe to enter, however, many groups had moved in, eager to get the nickel-steel of the meteorite. After a savage struggle, two bands had been triumphant. These had then allied and now held the site.
Among other rumors was that the meteorite had been mined and was being used to build a giant boat and that two famous men were directing the operations. One was the American writer, Sam Clemens. The other was King John of England, the brother of Richard the Lion-Hearted.
Herma
At the end of a long voyage, he arrived at Parolando. The rumors were true. Sam Clemens and King John, nicknamed "Lackland," were co-rulers of the land which sat above the treasure of the meteorite. By this time, large amounts of the metal had been mined, and the area looked like a mini-Ruhr. In it were many steel furnaces, rolling mills, and nitric-acid factories, and bauxite and cryolite were being processed to make aluminum. The ores from which aluminum was made, however, were to be found in another state. And there was trouble over that.
Soul City was a state twenty-six miles down-River from Parolando. It sat on large deposits of cryolite, bauxite, and ci
Herma
Worse, they were polluting their kas, and that made their business Herma
About a week after his arrival at Parolando, Herma
After the band finished playing a hymn, said to have been composed by La Viro himself, the bishop gave a short prayer. He then introduced Herma
Herma
"Brothers and sisters! Hear me out with the same love with which I speak to you. The Herma
"Yet, that I stand here before you today, a new man, reborn, testifies that evil can be overcome. A person can change for the better. I have paid for what I did. Paid in the only coin worth anything. Paid with guilt and shame and self-hate. Paid with a vow to kill off the old self, bury it, and go forth as a new man.
"But I'm not here to impress you with what a wretch I was. I'm here to tell you about the Church of the Second Chance. How it came into being, what its credo is, what its tenets.