99 Stories of God

28. Abandon All Hope

He was reading the fourteenth canto of Dante’s Inferno at 2:30 on Good Friday morning. The readings had begun the evening before. Readers read twenty-seven cantos at half-hour intervals. He liked his slot. It was a good canto — lively — some of them could put you to sleep. His was the third ring of the Seventh Circle, the ring of burning sand which torments those who were violent against God, Art, and Nature.

There were only half a dozen people there, but he read in a powerful, pleasant voice, stumbling over no word. It was a moving presentation, with the bells and silences. It was a tradition at St. Philip’s.

When he left, the stars were shining. It was a beautiful night, save for someone in a BMW cutting through the church’s parking lot at high speed to shave forty seconds off of wherever he was going.

Without reflection, he put out his hand and extended the middle finger.