Dawn.

He-Thing lay in bed,

watching the sun climb

out of the horizon

over slinky pillows

of orange and pink

light.

His body was a prison of aches

and sharp, surprising pains

that had convinced him

to move as little as possible.

Despite the new day rising,

He-Thing felt mournful.

The future had been

annihilated.

Everything had been taken from him

and all that was left

was whatever the next minute

in the hospital

brought.

Despite the golden light,

despite the pink clouds

like rose petals

floating down a shimmering

river,

He-Thing felt

moribund.

The world

had lost its real light,

its invisible light,

the light of life

and

joy.

He knew he was not

going to die —

that time was over.

But how could he go on

as he had before?

He-Thing began to

silently weep.

A tear fell from one eye,

and then the other.

They crawled wetly

down his cheeks

to drip down his neck.

More tears followed.

His cheeks trembled

uncontrollably,

and something in his heart was

chewing.

But he did not make a sound.

A feeling of resignation

came over him,

and the tears falling down his cheeks

slowed,

and stopped.

He had not wept

since he was

a very young boy.

He heard footsteps

in the hall outside his room,

and hurriedly wiped the salty tears

from his face.

Danide the eunuch

glided into the room

pushing a small cart.

“Good morning, my lord,” he said,

his voice buoyant,

“It looks like

the Great Father has blessed us

with another beautiful morning.”

He-Thing said nothing,

watching Danide

as the eunuch examined

the humming sorcery-machine

by the bed.

“I have to change the seal

on your wound,”

Danide said, smiling kindly.

“It won’t take long.

But it might feel strange.”

Danide stared at He-Thing

for a moment,

before our hero realized

the eunuch was waiting for him

to respond.

"Yes, thank you,”

He-Thing said,

his voice creaking

with emotion.

Danide’s heavily-painted eyes

welled with compassion.

“Do not fret, my lord.

You will be your old self

soon enough.”

He-Thing doubted that.

Danide lifted

He-Thing’s blanket,

revealing our hero’s

ruined, naked

body

to the morning light.

The eunuch bent

and closely examined

He-Thing’s wound.

He-Thing studied

the eunuch’s face

as he did his work.

Danide was not young —

underneath his makeup,

his face was lined with

crevasses and wrinkles.

But

despite his sex,

Danide’s maternal nature

had an unmistakable

beauty.

“I’m going to replace the seal

on your wound,”

Danide told He-Thing.

“You’re going to feel some pressure

in your abdomen.”

He took hold of the seal,

twisted it,

and a sigh came out of the machine.

He-Thing averted his eyes

as long as he could,

but a pessimistic curiosity

gained hold of him,

and his eyes drifted down

to his stomach.

It was bruised,

caked with dried blood,

and sewn shut

with a long array of stiches,

at the center of which

was the sorcery-seal,

A pulsing, throbbing tube

connected him with the

sorcery-machine,

injecting his body

with the healing, sacred

blue nectar.

He-Thing’s eyes lingered

on the seam of sticthes

holding him together.

It seemed precarious,

as though he could burst open

at any moment.

Danide attached a new sorcery-seal

to He-Thing’s wound.

He twisted it closed,

and He-Thing felt something opening

inside his abdomen.

“There!” said Danide.

“Now, I’m going to clean you up.”

He took a small basin

from his cart,

wet a sponge in it,

squeezed out the excess water,

and gently dabbed at the blood

and dried pus

around He-Thing’s wound.

“Thank you,” He-Thing said,

feeling helpless

and grateful,

and not knowing how to express it.

The eunuch looked at him

in sympathy.

“Yeshua, the One Son,

instructed that man

must care for man,”

Danide spoke.

“It is what

the Great Father

expects from us.”

“Yes,” He-Thing agreed.

“But so few men

do care for their brothers.”

“Do you, lord?”

Danide asked,

his face showing

fear

when he realized

what he had said.

“No,” He-Thing

answered,

honestly.

Danide smiled

in relief.

He finishing cleaning

He-Thing’s wound,

took a bottle of oil

from his cart,

and rubbed the nose-stinging liquid

into He-Thing’s skin.

“We are all sinners,”

Danide said.

“No one knows that better

than the Great Father.”

“I have sinned more than most,”

He-Thing admitted in shame.

“The Great Father can see

into our hearts,”

Danide said.

“He just asks us

to accept His love.”

He-Thing was silent,

trying to relate

to Danide’s religiosity.

Yes, he was a believer in

the All-or-Nothing,

he had ben baptised,

and taught the Word,

he feared the Great Father

and his power,

but

did his faith alllow

for what Danide spoke of?

The eunuch finished with the oil,

and wiped his hands off with a cloth.

He seemed lost in thought

for a moment,

and then he spoke again.

“My mother used to say

that all we have

in this earthly realm

is the Now.

She said that’s all we ever really possess.

And she said

that what matters

is what we do with the Now.”

“But,”

He-Thing said,

“I still do not understand

what makes you choose

to do what you do.

Everyone knows the Word.

But who really lives their life

according to the One Son’s teachings?”

Danide frowns, but his eyes are hopeful.

“I am a slave,” he said.

“That is all I will ever be in this life.

But we are all mortal,

and suffering waits for us all.”

to be continued....