Page 13 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 5-8
Jun nodded. Damian was breaking his heart. Bak might have been horrible, but at least he’d had nine years of idyllic childhood before his mother disappeared. Damian hadn’t had even that.
“Come on, I’ll show you the baptismal. It wasn’t part of the original build.”
The niche below the stone figure of the god’s son on the far wall was the baptismal. It was dry now, but once it had been a large square basin of water, large enough for a large man to stand in up to his waist or lay inside of. There was space between it and the back wall for a few people to walk. Essentially, it was in a hidden hallway above and behind the altar, but the wall in the pool section had been removed to make it visible to the entire sanctuary.
Jun stepped into the pool and crossed his arms on the curtain wall, looking out over the entire sanctuary. He was on the same eye level as the back balcony. There weren’t many seats up there. It looked more like a massive inside porch. Unlike many of the venues and theaters he’d performed in over the years, the upper level seemed built for standing only with waist-high banisters.
Jun trailed his eyes over the angels painted on the ceiling and carved in the arches and pillars. “So many hopes and dreams.”
“Sanctuary of lies.”
“Is it a sanctuary that lies or a sanctuary for lies?”
“Both.”
“It’s your sanctuary. You can make it speak the truth.”
Damian offered Jun his hand. “As if it was so simple. This isn’t my neighborhood anymore.”
“It is simple,” Jun let Damian lead him down to the cathedral floor. He turned, wrapping Damian around his back and holding Damian’s arms against his body. “Blood is simple. Fire is simple. The moment I ran from Bak: simple. The moment I flung the table and blood spread on the floor: simple. You know what I think complicated is?”
Damian bent his lips to Jun’s ear. “What?”
“Everything inside. Fear. Weighing the consequences. Considerations.”
“Chasing you down by the river—that was simple.”
Jun laughed, feeling a deep, painful ache inside his belly that he didn’t want to part with. “Simple.”
“I want us to be simple,” Damian whispered.
“Then we will be.” Jun turned around in the protection of Damian’s arms. “We’ll make it simple.”
With Cedric in tow and the SUV not far behind, Damian showed Jun around the block. Jun watched Damian’s eyes as much as he studied the street. There were smells: stale weed, dust, spicy cooking in the distance, car exhaust, the lingering scent of old ice, and hints of burning furnaces.
As they walked, Damian pointed out the corner store where he used to shop, his elementary school, now closed, and the building that had once housed the store where he’d bought most of his clothes growing up.
There was a dearth of grocery markets. Jun shivered in a gust of wind and pushed his hands into his coat pockets. “Where did you buy food? Where do people buy food now?”
“This neighborhood is a food desert.” Damian grimaced. “We did a lot of shopping at the corner stores, the dollar store, and sometimes we’d walk to a grocery store in the next area, but that one is closed now too.”
“How do people live?”
“Not healthily.”
Jun grunted. Maybe turn the church into a grocery market? Growing up in Seattle with his mother had never been like this. There had been the local Asian grocery down the street, the farmers’ market in the summer with tables overflowing with large vegetables and fresh flowers, Pike’s Place Market that ran year-round, and the large grocery chains. There had never been a lack of places to find good food.
“Why?”
Damian shrugged. “Cost-benefit analysis. Depressed areas spend less money. Petty theft like shoplifting goes up. Stores close.”
Jun scowled. “Doesn’t the city plan?”
Damian gave Jun a long-suffering look. “Budgets are already stretched. The train that Richard is building is being backed by private money only. He couldn’t get a government partnership for it, only government approval.”
“Train?”
“He’s building a commuter train between here and some cities to the south. Fairly high-speed commuter rail. Once it’s built, it should make southern parts of the city more attractive and increase commerce between this city and the rest, relieve congestion, take pressure off the housing market.”
