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But Pepe wasn't asking the two old priests; he'd dropped to his knees before the giantess--he was asking her. "One of us, our beloved Edward--our dear Eduardo--has something to ask you, Mother Mary," Pepe said. "Don't you, Eduardo?" Brother Pepe asked the Iowan.
Edward Bonshaw had more balls than, heretofore, Flor had thought. "I'm sorry if I disappoint you," Senor Eduardo said to the impassive-looking Mary Monster, "but I have forsaken my vows--I am in love. With her," the Iowan added; he'd glanced at Flor, his voice trembling as he bowed his head at the Virgin Mary's big feet. "I'm sorry if I disappoint you, too," Edward Bonshaw said, looking over his shoulder at the two old priests. "Please let us go--please help us," Senor Eduardo asked Father Alfonso and Father Octavio. "I want to take Juan Diego with me--I am dedicated to this boy," the Iowan told the two old priests. "I'll look after him properly--I promise you," Edward Bonshaw implored the giant virgin.
"I love you," Flor told the Iowan, who began to sob, his shoulders shaking in his Hawaiian shirt, in those trees ablaze with parrots riotously represented there. "I've done questionable things," Flor said suddenly to the Virgin Mary. "I've not had many opportunities to meet what you would call good people. Please help us," Flor said, turning to the two old priests.
"I want another future!" Juan Diego cried--at first to the Mary Monster, but he had no more ashes to sprinkle at the feet of the unresponsive giantess. He turned to Father Alfonso and Father Octavio instead. "Let me go with them, please. I've tried it here--let me try Iowa," the boy beseeched them.
"This is shameful, Edward--" Father Alfonso started to say.
"The two of you--the very idea! That you two should raise a child--" Father Octavio sputtered.
"You're not a couple!" Father Alfonso said to Senor Eduardo.
"You're not even a woman!" Father Octavio said to Flor.
"Only a married couple can--" Father Alfonso started to say.
"This boy can't--" Father Octavio blurted out, before Dr. Vargas interrupted him.
"What are this boy's chances here?" Vargas asked the two old priests. "What are Juan Diego's prospects in Oaxaca, after he leaves Lost Children?" Vargas asked, more loudly. "I just saw the star of La Maravilla--The Wonder herself!" Vargas cried. "If Dolores didn't have a chance, what are the dump kid's chances? If the boy goes with them, he's got a shot!" Vargas shouted, pointing at the parrot man and Flor.
This was not the quiet sprinkling the two old priests once had in mind. Vargas woke up the homeless types with his shouting; from the hindmost pews of the temple, the drunks and hippies had risen--well, except for one hippie; he'd fallen asleep under a pew. They could all see his scuffed, forlorn-looking sandals where the hippie's dirty feet extended into the center aisle.
"We didn't ask for your scientific opinion, Vargas," Father Alfonso said sarcastically.
"Please keep your voice down--" Father Octavio started to say to the doctor.
"My voice!" Vargas screamed. "What if Alejandra and I wanted to adopt Juan Diego--" he started to ask, but Father Alfonso was faster.
"You're not married, Vargas," Father Alfonso said calmly.
"Your rules! What do your rules have to do with the way people actually live?" Vargas asked him.
"This is our Church--these are our rules, Vargas," Father Alfonso told him quietly.
"We are a Church of rules--" Father Octavio started to say. (It was the hundredth time Pepe had heard it.)
"We make the rules," Pepe pointed out, "but don't we, can't we, also bend them? I thought we believed in charity."
"You do favors for the 'authorities' all the time--they owe you favors in return, don't they?" Vargas asked the two old priests. "This boy has no better chance than these two--" Vargas had started to say, but Father Octavio suddenly decided to shoo the homeless types out of the temple; he was distracted. Only Father Alfonso was listening to Vargas--hence Vargas interrupted himself, though it seemed pointless (even to Vargas) to continue. It was hopeless to think the two old priests could be persuaded.
Juan Diego, for one, was through asking them. "Please just do something," the boy said despairingly to the giant virgin. "You're supposed to be somebody, but you don't do anything!" Juan Diego cried to the Mary Monster. "If you can't help me--okay, okay--but can't you do anything? Just do something, if you can," the boy said to the towering statue, but his voice trailed off. His heart wasn't in it; what small belief he'd had was gone.
Juan Diego turned away from the Mary Monster--he couldn't look at her. Flor had already turned her back on the giant virgin; Flor was no Mary worshiper, to begin with. Even Edward Bonshaw had turned his face away from the Virgin Mary, though the Iowan's hand lingered on the pedestal, just below the virgin's big feet.
The homeless types had straggled their aimless way out of the temple; Father Octavio was returning to the unhappy gathering at the main attraction. Father Alfonso and Brother Pepe exchanged glances, but they quickly looked away from each other. Vargas had not been paying much attention to the Virgin Mary, not this time--all the doctor's efforts were directed to the two old priests. And Alejandra was in her own world, whatever world that was: an unmarried young woman with a solitary-minded young doctor. (That world, whatever you call it--if there's a name for it.)
No one was asking the giant virgin for anything--not anymore--and only one of the attendees at the sprinkling, the one who hadn't said a word, was watching the Virgin Mary. Rivera was watching her very closely; he'd been watching her, and only her, from the start.
"Look at her," the dump boss told all of them. "Don't you see? You have to come closer--her face is so far away. Her head is so high--up there." They could all see where el jefe was pointing, but they had to come closer to see the Virgin Mary's eyes. The statue was very tall.
T
he first of the Mary Monster's tears fell on the back of Edward Bonshaw's hand; her tears fell from such a height, they made quite an impact, quite a splash.
"Don't you see?" the dump boss asked them again. "She's crying. See her eyes? See her tears?"
Pepe had come close enough; he was staring straight up, at the Virgin Mary's crooked nose, when a giant teardrop hit him like a hailstone, landing smack between his eyes. More of the Mary Monster's tears were striking the uplifted palms of the parrot man's hands. Flor refused to reach out her hand for falling tears, but she stood near enough to Senor Eduardo to feel the tears hitting him, and Flor could see the broken-nosed virgin's tear-streaked face.
