"I know that, Ira," the older man said. "Do you know what I need you to do, Ira?"
"I think I do, Lord. Just to do whatever I kin to convince them."
"That is true, Ira, but I mean right now."
"Not completely, Lord," Ira answered.
"Just to believe, Ira. It is going to be hard to do. It has always been hard to do for all of my people. This is not a choice that is, has, or ever will be an easy choice to follow once it has been made."
"I know that, Lord, and I do believe."
"I know you do, Ira, but you see me. You see me standing in front of you, and so you believe that I truly am. That will not be any longer. You will have to find me in your heart where I have always been. You will have to go back to the acceptance that you felt, before you had ever met me. I will listen from your heart, and that is where I will live. If you need me you will have to trust that I live in you. Do you understand?"
"I believed before I saw, Lord. I always did, and I always will. Do you mean you won't come and talk to me?"
"Ira, how can someone make a choice that is based on faith, without faith?"
"I understand that, Lord, but it don't explain the why of it. If you want people to believe, you should just appear to them and they will. Wouldn't they?"
"It is not the same thing, Ira. You believed before you saw me. You believe now that Cora waits for you, and that physical life will continue to go onward. Why do you believe that Cora is waiting for you, Ira?"
"Well... Because you told me, lord, and because I seen her myself. You took me to her," Ira replied.
"Yes I did, but how do you still believe, when you cannot see her? What is it that makes you continue in your belief that she is still waiting for you?"
"You, Lord," Ira said, "you told me so."
"But if I were not here, would you still believe, Ira? You do not need to see me to believe. You only need to believe that I am there. If you believe, it makes it real for you. That is faith, Ira. The belief in something you cannot see, nor touch. That is why faith must also be, in order for choice to be. I was not here yesterday, but you believed. I walked with you but you did not see me. Yet you did believe in me. Do you understand, Ira?"
"I do, lord," Ira said, he paused briefly. "But, I will see you again won't I?"
"Of course, Ira. You will see me when you leave here. You will see me when you no longer require your physical body. It is not a long time, Ira. That is not to say that the time you will still require your physical body is short. It may or may not be. I cannot say. Ira, it is faith. Faith is what you have had, and faith is what you must continue to have."
"I do understand, Lord," Ira said. His eyes seemed sad as he spoke, betraying the heaviness his heart felt. He turned back out to the large crowd of people who were still speaking below, after he answered. They were still talking and sharing with one another, and didn't seem to be the same dispirited crowd of people he had walked through just a few hours earlier when he had come into the city.
"Lord, I will see Cora again won't I?" Ira asked as he stared out into the crowd. He waited for the older man beside him to respond, and after a few seconds when he had not, he turned to find out why.
The stone steps were deserted as Ira looked across them. The older man was gone.
Ira drew a deep breath, and let it back out in a sigh. He stepped slowly up the last stone riser, and walked into the old court house. His heart felt heavier than it ever had, and the longing for Cora seemed much stronger. You're right lord, he thought to himself, as he walked into the old stone building. It's a hard go, just believin', but you're right.
Below him in the vast crowd two separate groups had formed, and their lines could be seen with ease. It was distinct now, and the two groups were drawing further apart from one another as the seconds ticked by. They spoke only among themselves, only to those in their own group.
The larger group was still gathered around the now vacant police cruiser, and the smaller group began to drift farther away to the other side of the Street where Main Street fronted the War Memorial. They almost seemed in ignorance of one another as they coalesced, and drifted further apart. Presently the smaller group struck off down East main, towards the north side of the city. A few men in the lead of the smaller group, urging them farther away, almost herding them.
The larger group felt them go. It was almost as if they tugged at their souls as they went. But they had made a choice, and their leaving seemed to actually uplift the spirits of those who stayed behind.
Ira sipped at a hot cup of coffee he had gotten from a tired looking woman inside the old court house, as he watched the smaller crowd move away. He sat on the top step and watched until they disappeared down East Main Street.
- 5 -
In the crowd below, Frank stood holding Annie close to him. When some of the others had left and joined the smaller group he had been afraid that she would
