Then I Awoke in a Corner of the Church, but Not for Any Reason I Understood.

Lance Corporal was bent backward at the waist over a window sill of an abandoned tenement. His upper half had been smashed through a wide pane of glass while his feet remained firmly on the stones beneath him. The wooden planks had been demolished in many places all around him, driving his broken legs deeper into the foundation. It was as if he had been struck by a runaway cart that had withdrawn and vanished. I saw Mephra sitting in a corner of the church, gazing once again. And the muddy red sky beyond the windows. All around me the remnants of the ninety-second line slept uneasily,. stretched out on pews or even across the altar.