....Juan Cristoval de la Serna had been found in one of the confessionals with a note pinned to the blankets stating his name and age, but nothing more. He was now approaching his sixteenth birthday and he was expected to move on, make some room for another unfortunate infant. He had been hanging out down around the docks dreaming of the places he might go if he was a sailor. He now worked in the biggest, most successful butcher shop in Valencia, slaughtering chickens. He had already killed so many chickens this year, he thought the world might run out. He brought most of his earnings back to the orphanage and to Mary Kathryn.....
.....It was Spain. It was the Year of our Lord 1496. It was the age of discovery. It was the age of the Inquisition. People from all over the region were flocking into Spain and Portugal to escape religious persecution. Of course, the Catholic Church was demanding that all new citizens had to renounce their faith and accept Catholicism. That made sense; lots of the new citizens were very wealthy. The problem was most of the new citizens that renounced their religion had very short memories. They and their friends started meeting privately, in locations that were constantly changing. The Church was being lied to, and this was unacceptable. Currencies were changing hands and one of the hands did not belong to the Arch Diocese................
....Juanito ignored Mary Kathryn’s pleas and continued down the center isle. He tried to imagine what the Queen’s Guard would want with him. He had never even had the chance to violate any of the Queen’s laws. This old church was the only place he had come close to doing anything that resembled worship. Mary Kathryn had managed to block the center isle right in front of the pulpit. She was a master at feigning clumsiness, but could move with the grace of a ballerina. She was tangled up with three of the guard but easily turned to look at Juanito.
.
. .........
....“I told the Arch Bishop about the voice that only you hear.”.......................
....The Captain of the Guard was at the end of his patience. He drew the cutlass from his sash.“Stupida vaca.” He brought the heavy hand guard at the hilt down across Mary Kathryn’s ear.................................................................................
....Her bright eyes fluttered, then went blank. She was falling, face first, toward the stone floor...........................................................................................................
....He wished he could catch her.... .
....“You can.” It was the voice.
....Juanito dove as if diving from the docks. His elbows skidded across the stone, making even his teeth hurt. He rolled across one shoulder and unto his back preparing to absorb the shock of his falling friend. He exhaled…. then he blinked. Still she did not fall. He reached up, to touch her. And while he knew he touched something, it was not her. His hand seemed to pass right through her image. Still she did not fall.
....“You are between dimensions.” That voice again. “You need only to wish to return.”
Suddenly Mary Kathryn was moving again. Her entire dead weight landed in the middle of Juanito’s chest. Things went black for a second or two after impact.
....“Mira,” Juanito heard a voice through the fog. It was the captain of the guard, he was sliding the cutlass back into place behind his sash; “la vieja vaca ha atrapado a la pequena rata para nosotros.”
....Juanito struggled to get free of the old Nun, but could not. Laughter was building between the soldiers.
....“Move!” That voice again.
....“I am trying.”
...“Go back to that place where the rage took you.”
...“Huh?” Suddenly he was standing. He realized he had found that spot again, between the dimensions. He tried to grab the heavy chalice that was used for Holy Communion, but his hand passed right through it. He made a fist and swung with all his might. Aiming for a place just below the captain’s ear. When the blow met with no resistance he nearly ended up on the floor again.
. “If you wish to carry a weapon in the netherworld you must have it in your possession when you travel here.”
. He wondered if other people who heard voices heard their own voices or did they hear one that was so smug and self-righteous.
. “I’ll bet someone like you knows lots of people who claim to hear voices, why not ask one of them.” Juanito was beginning to get angry.
. “What is the meaning of that remark, someone like you?” Juanito suddenly remembered the soldiers.
. “They will go nowhere. Time, for them stops, if you are no longer present in that dimension.”
. He looked back to the soldiers and the scene in front of him. It was as frozen in time as a portrait.
. “But I can do nothing to them while I am in the, netherworld?”
. “That is correct. But you can place yourself in a position of advantage for your reappearance.”
. Juanito jammed his right index finger into what should have been the left eye of one of the soldiers, but felt no resistance. He went back to the heavy chalice and reappeared just long enough to grab it and disappear again. He went to the soldier closest to Mary Kathryn.
. “I would step around behind him so that when you reappear he won’t have an opportunity to react.” Juanito thought that sounded reasonable. “And raise the chalice, ready to strike.”
He did as he was told. And as he did, for just a moment, he got the strangest feeling. He was sure it was what nothing felt like.
“Now would be a good time to swing the chalice.”
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