Saying Grace

Y'all gon' sit down, have a good time this reunion,
And drink some wine like communion,
And act like everything fine and if it isn't,
We ain't letting everybody in our family business.

-Kanye West

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Rainwater mixed with tears on Luke's face, collecting salt as a river collects sediment on its journey to the ocean. A year had passed since his wife came here, to the John Adams Community Graveyard where she was laid to rest. In a way, he had come to live here too. He sold his house soon after her death, and moved about a block away from the cemetery.

He knew that it must have looked awfully morbid, but he explained to his friends that the price on his new house was too good to pass up, and that it was simply too painful to live in that house. Of course it didn't help that he visited her every weekend. It had gotten to the point where he was becoming known by name at the florist's. When the cumulative cost of buying all those flowers became too high, Luke took up gardening.

His garden was the envy of all his neighbors. It took up all the space in his yard. His two young sons, the older about ten, and the younger eight, now had nowhere to play, and no way to distract themselves. His father put them to work for a small allowance working out in the garden and their skin grew thick and their muscles strong.

The move also brought the family to a new church. The pastor, Father Mitchell, was a relatively young priest, only in his late thirties. His eyes and his voice, however, sounded like those of a man ten or twenty years wiser, a quality Luke found to be familiar and comforting. Father Mitchell first heard of Luke's green thumb at the church's weekly bagel breakfast after mass. Being an avid gardener himself, Father Mitchell approached Luke one Sunday as he was leaving church.

They introduced themselves, and shook hands politely. Luke told the priest his boys' names, and the two men immediately began enthusiastically discussing their gardens. The boys stood to the side in discomfort. Father Mitchell took Luke to the back of the church, where he had a beautiful and well-kept variety of plants. Luke, being the competitor he was, invited Father Mitchell to his home for dinner that night in order to display his own garden.

That afternoon, Luke worked his boys harder than ever in the yard. They worked until they were dog-tired, and little time to clean up before Father Mitchell arrived. The priest drove up at about six o'clock. The boys answered the door. They were both very well dressed, but Father Mitchell noticed traces of dirt on their skin, and a great weariness in their eyes. However, he soon placed these things in the back of his mind as Luke appeared and invited him to the table.

Father Mitchell led the evening prayer and blessed the food and the children. He soon found that Luke was not as adept a cook as he was a gardener. Luke apologized for the food, and explained that he was not the cook his wife was. Father Mitchell inquired as to when she had passed, and Luke told him, but quickly began talking about his garden, a subject which Father Mitchell gladly took up.

After dinner, the two men went outside to see Luke's garden, and the boys were sent to bed. Father Mitchell said goodnight, and watched them trudge up the stairs, threatening collapse with each step.

Once Luke felt satisfied that he had succesfully bested Father Mitchell's gardening abilities, the two men went inside to the living room. They each took a seat in front of the television. They sat in silence together, a widower and a priest, watching Home and Garden. Father Mitchell thought only about the boys and their haggard appearance and their tired eyes.

Eventually it came time to leave, and the two men said their goodbyes in the doorway. As they grasped hands, Luke saw for the first time a wedding band on Mitchell's right hand. As Luke looked in his eyes with surprise, he realized where the extra years in the priest's eyes had come from. The had come from a place Luke knew all too well. Before getting into his car, Father Mitchell shouted to Luke, who was still standing in the doorway, speechless. "You have a beautiful garden, my friend," he said. "But I think you should take better care of what you've got growing indoors." With that, he got into his car and drove away.

Luke watched his car leave his field of vision, and stood in his doorway for a long time afterward. When he could see it no more, his vision suddenly blurred and tears drew slowly and heavily down his face. Without even closing the door, he walked upstairs, into his sons' room and roused them from their sleep. After getting them out of bed, he embraced them tightly. The boys began to weep in their fathers' arms. Despite their thick skin and their dark eyes, the father felt that he had never held anything so delicate.