tHe confession of Maria luZ Miguel saucedo

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passages 2009/10
ran out at the same time and sat around in a circle, huddled near the open
windows, trying to siphon the fresh air back into their babbling gasping lungs.
The youngest girl, who was only nine, and was only there to experience
the grace and goodness of The Saints of the Holy Mary fellowship of the
Immaculate Conception, urinated on the threshold of the open door, because
of what her virgin doe eyes had seen.
In the morning, the best friend of the most efficient saint, and the
one that was the first to see the shocking exploitation, begged the older
saints that she wanted to stay—wait for another train, she said, so that she
would not have to endure the uncertainty and fear of such a long trip, saying
that her nerves were not used to such things. And that God would probably
punish her, saying, “God will make me go blind someday, because I was the
first to see.”
At last, when they were on the train, the oldest of the saints filled
them all with constant doses of sedatives and other natural remedies that
made them sleep more than what they needed.
The day they arrived in Oquitoa, the saints were summoned to come
to the church of San Antonio on top of the hill, where they sat in a locked
sanctuary listening to Father Dante’s reprieve, all except for Lucia, who was
the first to see, and Maria Luz, the most favorite saint.
Father Dante had pleaded, telling them not to hold any rancor or
memory of what they had seen in the bedroom of the hotel room. And that
love, was all forgiving, and gracious. But due to the fact, of God’s mysterious
ways, and interference with the human heart, he truly believed, in his now
poisoned and wretched soul, that it was the confession of Maria Luz that
made him do it.
The following day, Father Enrico Dante of Italy was dead at the foot
of the main altar of the church. The gossip revealed a single gunshot, and the
miraculous destruction of a human heart that completely vanished into thin
air. Father Dante laid on the floor of the church without his heart, clutching
a golden cross in one hand, and a crimson red dress in the other.