they watched the frustration of the two oldest of their number as they tried to eat the pease porridge.
“What is this?” Connor shouted in anger. “Nobody can eat this shit!”
Again, there were repressed giggles from the other residents. Then, at a nod from Matt, everyone got up from the table and took their untouched bowl of porridge to the garbage can. There, they dumped the porridge, turned the bowls in, then filed out of the dining room.
“Connor, did you see that?” Simon asked.
“Did I see what?”
“None of them ate.”
“Yeah, well, who can blame them?” he replied, looking at his meal with disgust.
“No, you don’t understand,” Simon said. “None of them ate so much as one bite. They always eat.”
“Yeah,” Connor said. “Yeah, you’re right. I wonder why not. Why don’t you follow them, Simon, and see if you can figure out what’s going on?”
“Yeah,” Simon said. “I will.”
Simon slipped out of the dining room, then hanging back a little, watched as the others went into the chapel. Curious, he moved up to the door of the chapel, then looked inside. Everyone was sitting quietly in the pews, with their heads bowed and their eyes closed.
“Simon,” Matt called, seeing Simon standing at the door. “It’s so good to see you here. Come on in.”
“What?” Simon asked.
“Why don’t you go get Connor and bring him with you? We would love to have you two join us.”
“Join you for what? What are you doing? What’s going on, here?”
“You may have noticed that we ate none of our food tonight.”
“Yeah, I did notice. Why didn’t you eat?”
“Because we are having a night of fasting and prayer,” Matt said.
“What do you mean fasting and prayer? How can you have a prayer service if there ain’t no preacher here.”
“You don’t need a preacher to have a prayer service,” Matt said. “Remember, the Lord said ‘When two or three are gathered in my name, there I shall be.’ I noticed that you fasted as well tonight. Won’t you please join us?”
Matt reached out as if to grab Simon and pull him into the chapel.
Simon held out his hands as if warding off Matt. He shook his head no.
“No,” he said. “I ain’t doin’ no prayin’.”
“What about Connor? Won’t you ask him to join us?”
“You’re crazy,” Simon said. “There ain’t neither one of us goin’ to be comin’ in here and sayin’ a bunch of prayers.”
“Then we will pray for you,” Matt said.
“You’re crazy, I tell you. Every last one of you.”
Matt waited for a moment, then he looked over at Eddie. “Make sure he’s gone.”
Eddie went to the door, looked through it, then turned back. “He’s gone,” he said.
“Let’s eat,” Matt said, and with that, everyone crowded up to the altar where, from beneath the pulpit, Matt pulled out a large ham.
“Oh, this looks so delicious,” Tamara said. “Where did you get it?”
“The ladies of the Methodist Church cooked it especially for us,” Matt said. “I just happened to be outside Mumford’s office when they brought it in to him. Mumford thanked them for it, then told Connor that he and Simon could both have a little of it before he took it home.”
“Took it home? He was going to keep a ham that was supposed to be for us?” Katherine asked.
Matt nodded. “Yeah. You think pease porridge is all we ever get? Churches and the like have been bringing us food ever since I got here, only we don’t ever see any.”
“That ain’t right,” one of the boys said. He had only been here about six months.
“I agree, Billy, it isn’t right, so that’s why I decided to do something about it,” Matt said. “I waited until Mumford stepped out of the office, then I took the ham and brought it here.”
“I wouldn’t have had the nerve to do that,” one of the others said.
“Sure you would have,” Matt said. “All you would have had to do was smell it when you were hungry.”
