The Heart Can Be Killed Anywhere On Earth

Burch woke up one morning in a ditch in some low-lying country. He had no idea where he was and no recollection of how he might have arrived there. Whatever possessions he might once have owned –and he had a vague recollection of a backpack full of belongings– were nowhere to be seen.

He was thirsty as the devil himself for a can of Coca-Cola.

Alongside the damp ditch in which he found himself there was a poorly-maintained dirt road, its surface pocked and worn with deep ruts. In the distance Burch could see smoke rising from the chimneys of a little town, and he set out along the road in the direction of this unfamiliar village.

As he walked it became apparent to him that somehow, and somewhere in the lost stretch behind him, he had acquired a rather pronounced limp. Burch felt a dull ache extending from his left buttock all the way down to the area behind his knee. The pain became more acute as he hobbled along the road.

An angel appeared to him just as he was approaching the outskirts of the village. Burch watched as the angel glided down from the bare branches of a tree.

You are to undertake a quest, the angel told Burch. An old horse will be provided for your journey, and you are to learn that the heart can be killed anywhere on earth.

That, Burch said to the angel, does not sound like a quest. It sounds like a sentence.

To which the angel replied, That is only because you fail to understand the full meaning of the phrase.

Burch considered the angel as it fluttered there above him on gray and dusty wings. This, he thought, was a most unwelcome and untimely visitation.

It seems to me that the phrase could not possibly be plainer, he said.

Only because you cannot yet see clearly, the angel said.

Burch was in no mood or condition to argue with an angel. For his part, the angel felt obligated to remind his charge of the seriousness of his mission.

You will understand, I’m sure, at what grave peril to his soul a man refuses to carry out the orders of an angel, he said.

I understand no such thing, Burch said. And surely you understand that you are looking at a man whose soul is already in considerable peril, if, in fact, it has not already been entirely lost to him.

What I am telling you, the angel said, is that there is yet hope for you. You are being given a rare opportunity.

I can barely walk, Burch said.

That is why you are being provided with a horse, the angel told him.

From the village Burch heard the ringing of church bells.

I suppose, he said, that I am to regard that as a sign.

The angel cocked his head and listened to the sound. The bells? he said. That is nothing more than a custom of the village.

Burch spit into the road and pawed at the dirt with his boot.

Let’s have a look at that horse, he said.

Slayed.

Slaughtered.

Shattered.

Crushed.

Obliterated.

Burst.

Busted.

Broken.

Destroyed.

Rubbed out.

Squashed.

Flayed.

Annihilated.

Massacred.

Snuffed.

Shredded.

Spent.

Jolted.

Struck.

Moved.

Electrified.

Blown wide open.

Stunned.

Tickled.

Elated.

Overjoyed.

Lit up like a jack-o-lantern.

Delighted out of all proportion.

Rocked.

Resurrected.

Reborn.