The Last Handful of Clover - Book 1: The Hereafter

1.58 Like Grapes on a Vine

June 8, 9:45 am

Mattie had spent so many years wandering at random in the Salt Lake Valley, that it felt strange to have a destination. But so many things were strange about these, the last days. She couldn't well expect God would want them all to go about their business as usual, now that things were so close.

You must be willing to act, God had told her. And you must be willing to wait.

The acting was easy for Mattie. It was the waiting that she found difficult. The silence. The patience required to be part of God's plan. Only God himself could be eternally patient.

Mattie had returned to the Valley Fair Mall, in West Valley City. She had returned because soon, it would be three days since the night of her greatest triumph. God had led her here that night, and God had pointed out his next chosen one. And although God had not promised Bradley Seward would be hers after that special night they spent together, Mattie harbored a secret hope that the pilot would return to her. That God would bring him back and make him her angel forever.

Bradley would be her second angel. Her second beloved child, lover, and follower. Already she could picture the two of them walking behind her, honoring their mistress, and both gazing at her in eternal devotion.

All three of us, walking together, hand in hand, into the glory of God...

The parking lot in front of the theater was empty. The police had cordoned off a vast portion of it, using red and yellow sawhorses and long streamers of crime scene tape. She could see that there were cars far across the parking lot and behind the restricted area. That made her happy. It meant that the mall had reopened, even if they still had the theater wing closed.

So many souls in the mall. So many kind, angry, sad, desperate, curious souls. Like grapes on the vine, waiting to be plucked and smashed into wine.

The analogy seemed right. It was one God himself had told her. And even though she had never tasted wine herself—and never would—she could not imagine the wine could ever be as delicious as the smashing of the grapes.

Before crossing the parking lot, Mattie stilled her mind, and tuned it to the tug that she shared with Billy Travers. To her relief, he was still far away—somewhere to the north and west. Her mind functioned so much more clearly when Billy Travers was not pawing at it, the way he had for a century and a half.

Over the decades Billy had often disappeared for days and weeks at a time. But he had always returned, eventually. He was always watching her, judging her, trying to speak to her. He was her own personal cross to bear. Or perhaps her own demon that God had sent to test her will and her resolve.

God had given her both of those metaphors as well.

You will not sway me, Billy Travers, she thought, turning away from the tug in her mind.

Until these past few months—in fact, until these, the latter days—Billy had been little more than a nuisance. But since God had shifted his angels into his service, it was as if Billy had sensed it. And since then, she had rarely been able to escape his gaze. She didn't know why he was suddenly keeping his distance today, but she was grateful for it.

When God took her and all his good angels from this place, Billy would either be damned to hell, or left here to wander the wreckage. And she didn't care which. She only cared that she would be rid of his vile presence.

Silently, she danced past the two news network vans, and past the lone police car that stood guard outside the entrance to the theaters. Inside, she found the lights turned down, and the whole theater wing of the mall deserted. There were no reporters, and only one lone cop was standing guard behind the barricades that separated the theater wing from the rest of the mall.