Who: St David and St Patrick What: A long-awaited meeting Where: St Patrick's Cathedral When: Sunday 29th, morning
Trains were okay. David was fine with trains. They got you from A to B in a reasonably straight line, and reasonably quickly. And trains didn't tend to crash into other trains, and you didn't get train rage. David liked trains. Planes tho- ugh. All the up and down and the turbulence and the confined air and the crashing and the ugh. No.
Still, he'd got to New York in one piece, and managed to find himself a reasonably priced, but not scummy, hotel room, and spent Saturday night just taking a breath. The city was big and noisy, even a far cry from the times he'd been into Philadelphia for whatever reasons. And it smelled different too. He thought he could remember the last time he'd been here- was it 80 years ago? 100? definitely before WWI- well, it had been very different then, and he hadn't stayed long. Now, it was all lights and cars and people shouting. David missed his cat and his house for a moment. Yeah, so when he'd been alive, personal possessions weren't allowed, and to say "my book" was punishable. But try getting far on that in today's society. As if David was about to start sharing toothbrushes with people. Yes, he packed light, and he didn't own a lot of useless trinkets, but still.
He woke early on Sunday morning, maybe 5am, and got up right away to do his exercises. Morning pilates had become something of a ritual, and a great way to centre himself before going about his day. He thought he might find a church today, and pray a bit, get himself together before starting a search for his brothers. He was sure there was a St David's episcopal church around somewhere.
"Excuse me," he said politely to the girl on reception. She looked at him, tired; she'd been there all night and was obviously dying to go home. "I want to find a church. Can you help me?"
The girl looked blank a moment. "Any church? There's St Patrick's, it's Catholic though. Lots of people like going there because it's the biggest, I think."
David smiled. She'd given him exactly what he wanted. "Exactly the thing. Bless you," he said, and turned away, walking into the city morning. It was only a small blessing, it didn't take much power to make a person feel the warmth of God's love for a moment, and he hoped that would carry her over until she could get to her bed.
St Patrick's Cathedral was definitely the most impressive building David had seen in a while. Sunday mass was likely to be starting, he thought, checking his watch and seeing it was around 7am. He checked the board outside for the times, saw that the 9am service had music, and considered just sticking around until then. It wasn't like he had a full and busy day planned, and he needed a bit of prayer to thank God for getting him to New York safely. Joining the people going in, he entered the cathedral, finding a vacant pew to the side where he could zone out the voices of the people around him, and sit in peace for a couple of hours.