Children of Paradise: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

it, steadies herself, and steps out of the coffin as gingerly as one might step out of a bath. She curtsies and smiles to ecstatic applause. She leans against the coffin and shades her eyes, looking into the crowd for her mother. Joyce runs to her with open arms and scoops her off her feet and squeezes her nearly as hard as Adam. Mother and daughter sob. Ryan and Rose walk up to Trina and Joyce. Trina sees them and smiles. They stretch out their hands slowly and touch Trina lightly and quickly retract their arms. Joyce pulls them close to her and all four embrace. Rose feels Joyce’s arm around her shoulders and imagines it is her banished mother, not Trina’s, who hugs her. The people keep up their cheering and applause and bow their heads repeatedly in the direction of their leader. Some of the women fall to their knees and forcibly drag their children down with them. Others follow suit, their arms busy making the sign of the cross. Whispers of praise the Lord and Father begin and spread throughout the crowd, and a chant builds and rises to a crescendo of: Hallelujah. Praise Father. Bless Father. The preacher nods at them and looks proudly at Adam and bares his Tic-Tac teeth.
    —You are all witnesses of how God works His miracles through me?
    —Yes, Father.
    —I am flesh and blood like you, but my faith in God is strong, and God feels it and works His miracles through me.
    The crowd says over and over, Praise the Lord.
    —Repeat after me, my children. We will die . . .
    —We will die.
    — . . . But we will rise again.
    —But we will rise again.
    —Repeat. We are destined to die . . .
    —We are destined to die.
    — . . . And surely we will rise again.
    —And surely we will rise again.
    —For the kingdom of heaven is ours. Repeat!
    —For the kingdom of heaven is ours.
    Spontaneous applause and more shouts of hallelujah ripple through the crowd. Several hundred adults hug one another, and the children take the cue and clasp hands and jump up and down. The preacher steps up to the bars of the cage. Adam suppresses an impulse to leap at the bars and grab his master, not to capture him but to feel if he is the same as the girl and the guards, the same soft flesh and pliable bones. Adam notices that the man’s left arm is behind his back. Adam focuses on that arm, interested in whatever surprise might be stored there. The preacher nods again, and Adam copies the nod and cracks his face with a smile. Next, the commune leader produces a banana and pushes his arm through the bars. Adam does not hesitate. He grabs the banana, taking care to touch part of the man’s hand. He finds that the hand is softer than he expects, almost as soft as the proffered fruit. Adam thinks, Father, just like everyone in the commune.
    Joyce leads her daughter from the cage through a forest of arms tapping them on the head and shoulders and through a sea of smiles and wet faces. Joyce lifts her dress and wipes Trina’s face with the hem.
    —Let’s clean you up and get you out of these clothes.
    —Can I keep the dress for a special occasion?
    For an answer, Joyce looks at one of the assistants, who nods her approval and tells Trina to go to the house and pick up a brand-new flute. They march inside, and Trina admires the walls hung with masks and carvings of oddly shaped figures and paintings of campfire scenes and spies; propped in one corner is a large glass case that resembles a fish tank, divided into four compartments housing two tarantulas and two scorpions. Trina walks her fingers and thumb along the glass, over one of the labels, Guyana Pinktoe , written in neat cursive, and a tarantula creeps toward her hand before she hurriedly withdraws. She taps on the glass of the Gormar scorpion, and it scuttles to meet her hand, and she withdraws again. She hesitates and reminds herself that even scorpions cannot sting through glass, then reaches forward and presses against the place where the scorpion rests. The guard warns her