Temple aka Sarah Mary Williams (afuriousrage) wrote in zombieslogs, @ 2014-02-26 17:48:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | temple |
Who: Temple
What: Watching over Krissy
When: This morning
Where: The infirmary
Warnings: Sad times
Notes: Malcolm and Temple dialogue is lifted from The Reapers Are The Angels
She had waited patiently for this moment. There were a lot of people in and out to see Krissy. Temple knew some of them from seeing them around at the prison or working on sentry shifts. She didn't know all their names but she knew their faces as they came and went. Have faith, Castiel had told her after hours of watching people in and out. Temple's problem wasn't faith and it never had been. In her sixteen years Temple had discovered that the earth was just one sprawling adventure. She was smart, earth. She kept her secrets but if you hunted them down far enough and hard enough you were bound to find them. And then some of them were just right in front of her face every day. Like the sun, blindingly brilliant when the sun hit it just right. Like the rolling purples and grays of the twilight sky. Like the thunder and the lightning that used to scare Maury so much but Temple knew that thunder and lightning was just God's way of reminding them all of who was in charge.
"You're real popular you know," Temple said quietly as she stood at Krissy's bedside. "I had to wait a long time just to get ya alone." She smiled as if Krissy could see her. You needed eyes for seeing things but there was nothing wrong with Krissy's ears. Maybe she could hear her. She didn't dare touch her though, afraid that maybe the tiniest disturbance might tip the balance in an ugly favor. Faith wasn't the problem, Temple knew that God existed. Vengeful and terrible in his righteousness, she believed in Him with all her heart. But it was hard to do the right things when there was the blood and the bandages and that machine that was keeping Krissy breathing. Those were the sort of things that would make a girl angry at God, that could make her welcome the sin into her life. Temple couldn't blame all of her past sins on anger but many of them had stemmed there.
"There was an iron giant just outside of Tulsa. He had a hardhat on and he had to be at least eight stories tall. He was a severe and mighty thing." Temple whistled low and shook her head. "Like a soldier of God who could shake the earth with his footsteps." The heart monitor beeped nearby with every beat of Krissy's heart. "Course I know that real soldiers of God aren't that big and I guess they wear trenchcoats." She shrugged at that. Castiel wasn't what she was expecting but she took it on faith that he was who he said he was and not just some crazy guy who thought he was an angel.
"Who built it?" Malcolm had asked.
"I don't know. The city, I guess."
"Why?"
Temple shrugged. "I don't know. It makes people feel good to build somethin' big. Makes people feel like they're makin' progress, I reckon."
"Progress towards what?" Malcolm, the little boy had asked her all big earnest eyes. It might have been that he had been Temple's brother but it was hard to know for sure. Most of the papers were burned in the fire at the orphanage. It was hard to tell who was related to who anymore. It didn't matter because in her heart Malcolm was her little brother.
"It don't matter. Up higher or down deeper or out farther. As long as you're movin', it don't matter much where you're goin' or what's chasin' you. That's why they call it progress. It keeps goin' of its own accord."
"Do they still build things like this?"
"Not much, I don't guess."
"Is that cause there ain't no progress anymore?"
"What you talkin' about? There's still progress. It just ain't in iron man statues anymore."
"Where is it then?" Malcolm asked.
"Lots of places. Like inside you."
"In me?"
"Sure. In the history of the planet there ain't never been a kid like you before. A kid who's seen the things you seen. A kid who fought the same fights you fought. You're a new thing altogether. A brand new thing."
Malcolm seemed to consider this for a long moment. "Anyway," he finally said. "I like it. It ain't never gonna die."
"It ain't never gonna die," Temple repeated in the present to an empty room but for one small sleeping girl. Whatever happened next would happen next and there was nothing that Temple could do to go back and change it. Time would play on the way it was meant to and no matter how many times she replayed it in her head she would never be fast enough to stop that crazy blonde lady. She wouldn't stop the blood loss in time, she wouldn't act faster or think quicker. Everything would happen the way it was supposed to happen. That was real faith because God was nature and nature was God and forget about the distance between them.
She thought back to that iron statue and she thought about that little boy standing underneath it, staring up it with such wonderment in his eyes. She thought about iron giants and forgot all about crazy blonde ladies with big teeth. Because the iron giants were a great testament to the strength and will of man. Progress. Human progress.
"It ain't never gonna die."