Page 17 of Snake-Eater
But how strange that the rest of the world had gone on existing, seasons rolling one after another, without her notice.
Selena’s lips twisted up.It’s almost like I’m not the center of the universe or something.
Copper, who did believe that Selena was the center of the universe, paused by the entry to the church and anointed a shrub. Selena sighed.
A man in a Roman collar came out of the church, and the sigh turned into a cringe.
A priest. Oh god, it’s a priest, and my dog is peeing on his church. Well, his shrubs. Oh god, no.
“Good morning!” called the priest.
“I’m sorry!” blurted Selena.
The priest looked down at Copper, who had the expression of intense concentration worn by dogs doing important business. He laughed. He had brown skin and very white teeth, and there were large pores across his nose.
“I’m Father Aguirre,” he said. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
Selena had no real scripts for meeting Catholic priests. Walter was devoutly nonreligious and Selena’s mother had held that Catholics were, if not going tohell, at least going to a much less nice heaven than Protestants. Selena’s entire experience with Catholics consisted of a boyfriend in college who had crossed himself before exams.
Saying “You’re the one who gave my aunt the wildly tasteless toilet!” wasright out.
“I’m really sorry,” said Selena again. “Um. I’m Selena. This is Copper.”Do I call him Father? I’m not a Catholic. But Mr. Aguirre is probably rude. Being a priest is like being a doctor, right? Even if it’s not your doctor, you still call them Dr. So-and-So, I think.
But if you’re not actually the right religion—no, you call vets Dr. So-and-So, even if you’re not a dog, sothatmeans—
“It’s nice to meet you, Father Aguirre.”
This seemed to be correct. Selena breathed an internal sigh of relief.
Copper, having finished, indicated that she wished to make a new friend by banging her skull into the priest’s hand. He obliged by scratching behind her ears, which in Copper’s mind resolved all issues of religious tolerance forever.
“Are you new in town?”
“Just yesterday. Um. I was here to see my aunt Amelia, but I learned she ... well ...”
This is stupid. He obviously knows she’s dead. You’re not sparing his feelings.
Father Aguirre’s smile faded. “Oh, of course. I’m so sorry you had to come all this way to find that out.”
Selena stared at her feet. “Um. I was going to the post office—”
“Here, I’ll come with you. The mail carrier came in yesterday, but I haven’t gotten there yet.”
He was wearing a black button-down shirt and crisp jeans and seemed immune to the heat. Selena was suddenly very glad of the fact that she had dragged her suitcase all the way to Jackrabbit Hole Houseso that she wasn’t meeting him in a T-shirt that had spent several days on a train.
She was sneakingly glad to see that white road dust was beginning to powder the bottoms of his jeans.
Father Aguirre cleared his throat.
Oh god. Is he going to talk to me about my soul?Selena had scripts to deflect the persistently religious, but they had mostly been evangelical friends of her mother’s. Catholic priests who liked dogs were another matter.
But he did not talk about her soul. Instead, he pointed out dangerous chickens. “That one,” he said. “The big red one with the comb that looks like it’s been split in half. That chicken is a devil, and I say this as a professional.” He grinned at her, apparently inviting her to share the joke.
“He is?”
“He’ll go for the back of your legs every time. The big white-and-black one over there acts tough, but he’s all show. Watch your feet when you walk by the mechanic’s place, there’s a hen that will try to herd you. She was raised by a border collie and thinks she’s a dog. It’s very confusing for her. She’s excellent with other chickens, though.”
“This is averystrange town,” said Selena, and then cursed herself, because obviously it was his town and that might have been considered an insult.
