Read Online Feast of Saints by Zoe Wildau - Free Book Online Page A

had mellowed him. Their once rocky relationship had found a relatively easy rhythm. She called him to report in every few weeks and made the trip home at least once a year, at Thanksgiving or Christmas. They were warm holidays, the anger and resentment long gone, on both sides.
    Sighing, she went to stand in her studio amidst the growing grove of Jake statues and disembodied limbs on metal stands. She’d covered her desk with thick plastic and on it sat a large block of clay. Using a wire cutter that looked like an oversized cheese knife, she carved a hunk off of the clay and kneaded it in her hand. Standing facing Jake’s white plaster face, she began adding features. Just toying with effects, she used the clay to fill in his broken nose, straightening and sharpening it. She also filled in the dimple in his chin and built out his cheekbones, making his face more triangular than square. On a whim, she sculpted pointy elf ears.
    She laughed at the effect. He looked so wise, benevolent. Not at all what was needed for Allegrezza. Moving to the next Jake, she began building out his brow, exaggerating the slight frown he must have had under the alginate. The effect was immediate. Lilly deepened the expression. Oooo. Scary. Now she was getting somewhere. Rolling her office chair to sit in front of the scowling Jake, she pulled out a pad of artists’ paper and a new pack of soft, colored pencils and began drawing. By one a.m., she had papered half of a wall with scowling and benevolent Jakes and some drawings that melded the two together. Yawning, satisfied that she had at least started to get some inspiration, she headed for bed.
    That night, Lilly dreamed of Jake. The dream started innocently enough. She stood on the edge of her father’s cornfield. It was a hot summer day and the corn was getting tall. As she looked out over the field into the western afternoon sun, she shaded her eyes and searched for her father’s tractor. Not seeing the telltale plume of dirt and dust that usually followed the tractor, she turned toward the house. Everything seemed deserted. Shutters flapped on the second story of the farmhouse, although she felt no breeze.
    As she surveyed the house and yard, the sun was suddenly eclipsed as a great shadow fell over her. Ducking instinctively, like a rabbit hunted by a hawk, Lilly covered her head and neck, not daring to look up. The ground shook around her as something massive landed right behind her. It was so large that its shadow blocked the sun and spread out and around her, darkening the barnyard.
    Although the sun’s rays were shielded, the heat was not. The heat continued to grow, emanating from the thing. Sweltering in the heat, she slowly lifted her head and turned to peer at the monster behind her. At first, all she could see was blackness blotting out the sun. Then she registered the color and vibrancy of it – like a burning lava flow – shifting, undulating colors of blackest coal, brick red, gashes of fiery orange, flashes flaming yellow.
    The sun’s rays outlined the contours of its shape. There were massive shoulders and wings not fully unfurled yet spanning ten fence posts – eighty feet. Thick legs straddled her as it towered above her. A tail, sharp and whipping, agitated the ground and air, slicing through the corn behind it and kicking up shredded vegetation and dirt.
    Lilly looked up into the face, harsh, cruel – uncaring – and recognized those features. She felt the skin on her face and hands begin to blister and boil from its, his, proximity. The heat swiftly became too much, and her clothes and hair burst into flame.
    She woke from the dream with a start and a muffled scream. The blankets were twisted around her and her face was buried under her pillow, smothering her. She gasped for air, choking on her scream. Shoving the pillow off of her head, she scrambled to get out of the bed and fell to the floor in the twisted blankets. She frantically patted her face, her hair