January 2023 Where I Begin Again

• Where I ended.
• Where someone points.
• I just proceed.

Seduction

by David Shumate

Narrated by Eugene Marckx

I didn’t shoo off the two women evangelists who rang my doorbell.
Instead, I invited them in to explain the workings of heaven while
I cooked barley and bean soup. I asked one to mince the onions.
The other to slice the garlic. I heated the chicken broth and added
the barley and white beans and spices. The soup simmered as they
told me about the apocalypse. How everything will be turned to
ash. How Jesus will catch the faithful as they fall. I ladled out the
soup and told them about the old chef in Florence who decides
which soup to cook each morning by studying the temper of the
sky. He would reserve a soup like this for a cloudy day. The
younger evangelist dipped a finger into her bowl, licked it and
hummed with the delight of a heathen. The cut of her yellow
dress flattered her bosom and for a moment I imagined her
impurely. She sensed this and smiled as her friend talked on and
on about the joys that await us when we are dead.