The Bodyguard ("Comfort" story #37)

COMFORT
by Michael Kroetch

The bodyguard’s mother is out in the park on a walk. She’s with her Hindu. She likes being seen with him. It seems everyone knows he is of a different belief system. She likes this. She wants someone to stop them and say something. She wants to be able to stand up for him. She knows his belief system is only temporary, but still, for now, she wants to protect it. Later, after they’ve been united by the church and the law, she will undo their differences. She hasn’t told him this yet, and doesn’t plan to. The saving of his soul is going to be a wonderful surprise—a secret, belated wedding gift. For now, when she is with him in public, it is as if she is at the circus with a beautifully feathered bird on her shoulder, but she knows the thrill cannot last. She knows it just as she knows she must get him another pair of shoes. A pair more proper.

She likes it that her beloved can do such things as he does when they are alone and he contorts for her, but these are not things her neighbors can appreciate. Nor Jesus. That is why, when the Hindu is at her house, she takes Jesus off the wall and puts Him in a drawer. She would like to put her neighbors in the drawer as well, but instead, she simply draws the shades. She knows Jesus doesn’t mind being in the drawer because she has a red towel in there to make it more comfortable for Him and the nails He hangs from.

Likewise, she knows that once the circus is over and proper shoes have been purchased, Jesus can go back up and stay on the wall where He belongs. But not yet. For now it must be this way. And she’s happy Jesus doesn’t scream in that drawer. She doesn’t like it when that kind of thing happens. She never has.