The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell [107]
Emilio’s head came up and he looked at Marc, his face very still. Marc noted this and smiled, but continued. "The Jewish sages also tell us that God dances when His children defeat Him in argument, when they stand on their feet and use their minds. So questions like Anne’s are worth asking. To ask them is a very fine kind of human behavior. If we keep demanding that God yield up His answers, perhaps some day we will understand them. And then we will be something more than clever apes, and we shall dance with God."
20
NAPLES:
JUNE 2060
"REYES, RELAX! WE’RE in far less danger out here."
"Far less is not the same as none," Felipe Reyes told the Father General sourly. They were out of sight of land now and unlikely to run onto rocks, which Giuliani knew to be the real hazard while sailing in the bay, but Reyes was unconvinced. "I was a lot happier when we could see the shoreline. "
Giuliani grinned into the sun, as they sailed close-hauled on a starboard tack. He’d put Reyes on the tiller, figuring that the man could control it using his upper arm and elbow. Usually he gave virgins the jib sheet and taught them how to keep the sail from luffing so he could take the tiller himself, but Reyes didn’t have a secure enough grip to handle rope.
"This is the first day, including Sundays, in almost ten years that I haven’t been in at least four meetings," the Father General said. He was stripped to the waist, tanned and big-shouldered, in remarkable condition for a man of his age. Felipe Reyes, stocky and unathletic, kept his shirt on. "It’s getting so I always make a sincere Act of Contrition before I go into a meeting. Statistically, it’s a good bet I’m going die during one. Prepare to come about."
Reyes ducked far lower than necessary as the boom passed over his back. He had a vision, as vivid as anything Santa Teresa de Avila ever experienced, of being swept overboard and sinking like a stone.
"I’m sorry it has to come at Emilio’s expense," Giuliani continued, "but I’m delighted by the chance to get out on the water."
"You love this, don’t you," Reyes said, watching him.
"Oh, yes. Yes, I do. And I am, by God, going to take a year off when I’m eighty and sail around the world!" he declared. The wind was coming up and there was weather to port. "Sailing is the perfect antidote for age, Reyes. Everything you do on a sailboat is done slowly and thoughtfully. Most of the time, an old body is entirely capable of doing whatever needs to be done while you’re cruising. And if the sea is determined to teach you a lesson, well, a young back is no more capable than an old one of resisting an ocean, so experience counts more than ever. Coming about."
They sailed on in silence for a while, passing and saluting a couple of men on a fishing boat. Reyes had lost track in all the jibes and tacks of which way they were going, but he had the impression that they might be circling the bay. There were a lot of fishermen out. Funny, for so late in the afternoon.
"I tried to get Sandoz to come out here with me yesterday. Thought he’d enjoy it. He looked at me like I was suggesting a suicide pact."
"Probably scared to be out in a boat," Felipe said, hoping it wasn’t obvious that he was actually pretty frightened himself.
"But you guys are from an island! How can you be scared of the sea?"
You guys, Felipe noted. Plural. So much for not being obvious. "Easy. Hurricanes and pollution. Toxic tides and sharks. Nothing like living on an island to convince you that land is the correct place to be." Felipe looked out at the horizon and tried not to notice the storm clouds. "I never learned to swim, myself. I doubt that Emilio ever did either. Too late now, in any case," he said, holding up his prostheses.
"You won’t need to swim, Reyes," the Father General assured him. He was quiet for a while and then said casually, "Tell me about Emilio. I knew him as a kid—he was one of my secundi during formation, you know. God’s best beloved, we primi used to call him. Only a matter of time until he leads a revolt