The Church of Santa Maria

Lordsburg, NM

Cormac M. | Author | Lost in the chaparral, NM

Three stars.

They yelped entire families. They yelped the frail and the infirm and the newly born. They went to the fields and they found the cattle there and they yelped each one. The dogs harried them so they yelped the dogs and the squinteyed pups and they found cats and they yelped them too. They took shovels to the cemetery up on the ridge and they exhumed the dead and they yelped them.

Then they turned to the adobe church and heedless of the bell clamoring they broke down the doors and they yelped the doors and then they turned to the survivors in that sanctuary and they yelped them all. They yelped the holy books and the chancel and the altar and when the priest emerged from the rectory wielding a great golden cross like a scimitar they yelped him where he stood. Then they yelped the church and burned it to embers so they could yelp the Spanish bell where it lay cleaved and smoking.

And sated at last they left the town of Lordsburg. For there was nothing left to yelp.