Read Online On Broken Wings by Francis Porretto - Free Book Online

God to free her from the burden of original sin. It's done, and God knows her now. And I'll thank you not to suggest a second time that I've left the faith, Father."
    The priest lowered his head, abashed. "Forgive me, Louis, it was uncalled for."
    "She'll get her instruction from me as she's ready for it and when she asks for it. That's as it should be. I don't doubt that you'll be involved, but I won't have you rushing her, or me."
    Louis had been immovable, and Schliemann had acquiesced, but he could not dispel his unease. If Louis were correct, then two millennia of Catholic practice -- nay, the practices of religious communities of all kinds, places, and times -- stood indicted as self-destructive foolishness. But how could the scholars of the Christian Era, many of them hailed as among the brightest men ever to walk the earth, have been that wrong? And how could it be that the Church would learn its mistake from a dying man, little more than a boy, in the midst of his own crisis of faith in the hinterlands of central New York?
    For some years, Schliemann had been the only priest in the parish. The isolation was to his taste. It had freed him of certain distractions he had always found annoying, albeit at the price of extra work for himself. But it was difficult to ponder such a subject without another priest to talk to.
    The old priest's mouth quirked. It would not have mattered, anyway. On all subjects touching the newly baptized Christine Marie D'Alessandro, Louis had sworn him to silence.
     
    ====
     

Chapter 8
     
    The kitchen table was bare except for a large sheet of butcher paper. Christine and Louis sat before it. A spring thunderstorm rattled the windows. Against the backdrop of the storm, the kitchen seemed unnaturally bright.
    Louis drew three pentacles in one corner of the sheet. "What do you see, Chris?"
    She glanced at him suspiciously. "Three stars."
    He nodded, and drew three rhomboids a little distance away. "And what do you see here?"
    "Three diamonds. What does this have to do with computers?"
    "Patience, Chris. I'm trying to lay some groundwork, here." He drew a large numeral 3 and pointed at it. "And this?"
    "Come on, Louis, get serious."
    He said nothing.
    "It's a three."
    "Three of what?"
    "Huh? Three of anything."
    "Is 'three' a thing, Chris?" He was grinning now.
    "Well...isn't it?" She was beginning to feel confused.
    He shook his head. "Go anywhere you want, in this house or anywhere else, and find me a 'three.' I'll pay big time for it. I've been looking for more than thirty years."
    "All right, what is it, then?" Confusion and frustration were beginning to blend.
    Louis shook his head again. "You're going to tell me. I'll ask a related question." He wrote "Christine" below the 3. "What's this?"
    "It's my name...wait...it's a lot of other people's name, too. It's not me, but it's used to refer to me." She frowned. "Louis, what does this have to do with computers?"
    He declined to acknowledge the question. "What do you call something that's used to refer to something else?" He waited, eyes and grin wide.
    She thought furiously. "A name? A label? A...symbol?"
    His grin blossomed into a brilliant smile. "A symbol. These are both symbols. Nearly pure, too, since they have no use except to refer to other things." He appended "Marie D'Alessandro" to her first name and pointed to it again. "That's a symbol, too. A more specific one, the symbol for you. Now, how does this symbol differ from that symbol there?" He pointed to the numeral again.
    She thought a moment. There had to be a point. She would find it.
    "That," she pointed to her name, "refers to something specific. This," she pointed to the digit, "refers to an idea."
    He laid his pencil down and brought his hands together in three sharp claps. He appeared to be both surprised and pleased.
    "You're on your way, Chris."
    ***
    Twenty minutes later, he had bared the guts of his personal computer as she watched, and was pointing out its sights