CHAPTER TWELVE
HALLELUJAH
Exsúltet iam angélica turba cælórum:
exsúltent divína mystéria:
et pro tanti Regis victória tuba ínsonet salutáris!
Father Branch sang into the darkness.
Gáudeat et tellus, tantis irradiáta fulgóribus:
et ætérni Regis splendóre illustráta,
tótius orbis se séntiat amisísse calíginem.
The sun was just beginning to stay up past eight. Outside, on Kirkland Street, as the blue sky was turning charcoal, Father Geoff had made the roaring fire in a pit, and it shone on their faces maing them all premative, making them something before theology, calling light out of the darkness back into the world that cried out for it. With the grace of a magician, Geoff Ford lit the Easter candle. Moments before he had chanted, as he traced the year 2000 onto it, as he made the sign of the corss with the red wax nails:
"Christ, yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega. To Him belongs all time and all the ages; all glory and dominion is his now and forever.”
And they all said, “Amen."
Delicately he placed the grains of incense in the candle, and deeply Russell felt it as, above them the first stars came into the blue sky, diamond hard, and Michael Branch chanted:
"By His holy and glorious wounds may Christ our Lord guard and keep us."
They processed into the church, Father Branch before Geoff Ford and Robert Heinz. At the Easter liturgy they always needed at least three priests and Michael Branch said he would be glad to help out so long as he could preside. He said it with a wink, but the younger priests knew how serious he was.
Behind the priests came the lectors, the altar boys and altar girls, the choir in white robes and not the robes once conned from Evervrigin across town where Gilead was with Mark right now. Bells were ringing somewhere, not here, it was not time yet, and Russell, as he walked behind Chayne and Rob up to the winding choir loft, had thought, down south, across the bridge, Ralph is at Saint Celestines with Anigel’s family. Anigel was here, and Ross was here as well. Father Branch had chosen to chant the exultet in Latin, but it was written in English on the program, and besides, Latin was one of the few things Russell was good at it.
Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,
ablaze with light from her eternal King,
let all corners of the earth be glad,
knowing an end to gloom and darkness.
One taper had been lit from the Easter candle and it lit the tapers of servers in white, and they went from aisle to aisle, light the candles of people at each end, and each shared the light. Looking down from the choir loft, Russell could see the blackened nave of Saint Adjeanet fill with little yellow stars and now, up the wooden stair canem someone who began to ignite the choir as well. Under the golden light, while Father Branch chantedm the altar with the old statue of Jesus, hands stretched out to the dark was lit, as was the old Crucifix. The light shone on the painted scenes of the Way of the Cross, Jesus stumbling once, stumbling again, there, the body of Jesus placed in the arms of Mary weeping. At this moment Russell saw it almost mystically, the sea of stars, the whole of the universe shining on one suffering man, as it always did. The body of Christ was the body of the whole world.
Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,
ablaze with light from her eternal King,
let all corners of the earth be glad,
knowing an end to gloom and darkness.
Everyone was here. There were the Dwyers, but not quite together. Cameron was with Chris in a row beside Anigel and Ross. Brad and Nehru were here and here was Marissa with her belly rounding out like a moon. And there was Aunt Kristin, just arrived this evening with Uncle Reese who was holding the sleeping baby, his little cousin. Rob looked more handsome than Russell knew. Russell was nearly jealous of Chayne. After all Rob and Cody were the same age, and Rob was white gold and elf faced to Cody’s chocolate and thick limbs. They were both fey and well built and when he had stayed over he had heard the noises from Chayne’s room and thrilled to them.
And there was Cody, and he loved him, He was with Jill and Shane and he loved him he loved him, but he loved all of them. And here he was. Nothing mattered. Sin did not matter, or if it did, it did not matter forever. God welcomed all. He had to, for Russell felt that all of him was welcomed. The light made sense of all darkness. For the first time in a very long time, Russell felt with a potency that shook him, that almost made him cry, that the light would make sense of his darkness as well.
The morning R.L. died the house was filled with a strange lightness. Happiness wasn’t quite the word. They’d all come through something, and for most people it was the vigil to be present for the people you loved, to stand beside the people you love and face what most people feared. Those who were asleep had almost immediately awaken, and outside in the yard they could hear Kristin wailing. Russell remembered what it had been like to hate his father, and what it was like to love him again. His aunt Kristin, the first born, hand been the first baby in R.L’s arms. There was a point when it was only the two of them/ The trust he had broken it had taken a life time to restore, and not even completely. The reunion, the restoration, was unfinished, and it would have to be. Death was a jagged thing.
As people had come downstairs into the morning, Russell had seen something that was slightly surprising, but ought not have been, not if he truly knew these people after all this time. Chayne went outside, followed by Anigel, and both of them knelt in the grass and held Kristin while she sobbed, She placed her face in Chayne’s chest and Russell thought, “Well, I never thought about it, but if they all grew up here, she must have known Chayne all her life too.”
Then a lot of things happened at once, and they were governed by Patti. The EMTs arrived by ambulance, and by then only Thom and Kathleen and Jackie were in the room. The room was strange to Russell, a room where what was left of his grandfather, the man he had just barely begun to know, lay. He was surprised when the EMTs simply left the house, but almost as soon as they left, like a procession, Mason Devalara arrived in his black Oldsmobile followed by the elegant black of van and out of it came Chayne’s father and three of his many Prince cousins. They entered the hosue quietly and Sharon followed them to the room with R.L.
“Kathleen,” Graham Kandzierski said more kindly than he had ever spoken, “Do you have plans?”
She looked at Mason, who would be her husband,and then at the bed where what had once been her husband was a mass covered over by the blanket.
Now, Finn began wailing profusely, but Kathleen said, “Life wasn’t really that kind to any of us. He’s been cut up enough. He wanted to be free. Burn him up. Why should this old body hang around?”
Russell was beside his best friend, when he saw the body of his grandfather born out of his living room on a stretcher. Gilead said and did nothing, but Mark but an arm around his waist and squeezed him. He loved them both.
Cameron was standing with her brother and her father. Niall and Dill watched, perplexed as in a black bag, a body was brought past them. Bill crossed himself.
“Dad…” Niall began.
“I love you, Niall,” Bill said.
Niall nodded his head and tears went down his face.
“I’ll be better,” Bill told him. “I promise.”
And then Marissa, who had been on her way to work, but received three messages from Nehru, came into the house as the van was driving away, and she stood there like the Madonna, belly rounded and morning light making an aureole about her. Brad and Nehru had been sitting on either side of Cody, but now Nehru tapped Brad and when he saw the mother of his child, and when he saw her belly, round as the world, he went to her, and he fell on his knees weeping, as he pressed his cheek to her stomach.
In the hour after the Prince’s had come for R.L, the house lightened. Chayne and Rob left. Anigel and Ross did as well. Brad and Nehru remained longer than Russell expected, and when they left they took Cody with them. Jason and Ralph had left not long after the EMTs did, though Gilead said he doubted they were going to school, and Gilead and Ralph were still there long after the Princes had taken R.L. away.
“Why don’t you guys do something,” Thom said.
“Are you trying to get rid of us?” Macy asked.
“No! No,” Thom shook his head. “I’m so glad you all came. Mark, Gilead, I really appreciate you all being here, but life is for living and young people shouldn’t be cooped up in a house of death, Go,” he said. “Go.”
“Well, I could do with some breakfast,” Gilead said.
They were all heading out when Thom said, “Flipper, could I talk to you?”
Russell;’s stomach did somersaults while he waited in the living room, and he watched his father talking to a boy who, with his dark brows and black hair seemed like another Lewis relation. He looked a little like if Thom had brought forth a tall son, and then Russell realized Thom had brought forth a tall son which was him and he wondered what he and Fkipper looked like side by side. But Flipper was alughinf now, and Thom shook his hand warmly and squeezed his shoulder.
“What was that all about?” Russell asked on the way to the car.
Flipper blushed and grinned at Russell.
“I’ll never tell.”
