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"You know how it is. " he murmured in embarrassment. "My job... "

"A flood in Italy, an earthquake in Turkey. " she interrupted. "Uncle Sam calls while your mama's dying in her little house... "

"Don't! " he told her angrily. "Don't start with me. This sickness came to her so quickly, even if I'd been here... "

Now it was Maria's turn to blush. She never meant to act like this, knowing he did not love his mother any less than did she. But the girl had sat for days by the bedside of that sweet saintly woman as her body grew thinner, the bouts with fever becoming more frequent till she'd at last succumb to the terrible stresses on her system.

"I'm sorry, Jesus. " she murmured. "It's been a hard week for me. "

"I'm sorry too. " he told her, taking his cousin into his arms. "You've been the angel in the family. I can't ever make amends for the burden you've taken on over the years. "

"As hard as it is. " she told him with a serious voice. "I need for you to take some of that burden from me now. Your mama... "

"What is it? " he asked, his gaze narrowing with concern at the odd tone from the young woman.

"I need for you to deal with Father Martinez! He and some of the others wish to... they want to do things which are an abomination, an affront to the Church and to God himself !" Maria explained angrily.

"Where's mama? " he demanded, understanding the meaning behind her cryptic words. In the aftermath of the rise of the Dead, what Father Martinez proposed had been done before and done badly by frightened people.

"She's safe from them for the moment. Pablo's sitting watch over her. " she reassured him. "But I don't know how long he can keep vigil before the Padre and those superstitious idiots get hold of her. "

"Then perhaps we better go check on Pablo. " he responded, giving Maria a quick kiss upon her worried forehead. "After that, I'll have a long talk with Father Martinez. "

Pulling out of the airport onto Inglewood, his cousin was too busy watching the hurried traffic to sight-see. Jesus saw the plumes of pitch black smoke rising from Watts and Compton. In the heavy air which smothered Los Angeles, the soot spread across a wide area, turning the vista dirty brown.

"It's been that way for almost a couple weeks now. " she told him without looking. "It's hard to say which fires have been set by the radicals bucking the racist system or folks scared of the dead. "

"What dead? " he asked as multiple sirens sounded. "I thought any recent incidents to be few, practically none in California. "

"Mr. Rational. " she teased mildly. "Rumors have been running wild about a second coming. The crazies and false prophets are saying it's like the Seven Plagues of Egypt. America has been given a chance to come clean, set free the oppressed. If not..."

"Richard Nixon as Pharaoh, I love it. " he hooted appreciatively. "We opted out of Vietnam to deal with the dead and stayed out after Johnson left office. Without a war to hid behind, the President has been forced to deal with minority interest on the Hill. "

"You can't burn Rome in a day, " she chided him as they turned left on Rosemead. "but folks are bound to try. No matter what concessions are thrown our way, many still think it's too little too late. "

"Too late. " he repeated with a smile in his voice. "If the Dead or Jehovah won't do it, we'll bring Armageddon down on ourselves. Odd how when the shit comes down, the first thing we do is help The Man by burning down our own homes. "

"Not yet in our neighborhood. " she told him as they arrived at his family home, a tiny single story two bedroom house with stucco walls. This was where Chiro and Jesus had spent a relatively happy childhood, even having been abandoned by their father shortly after Jesus was born.

"Only crazy priests threatening to mutilate the deceased for fear of resurrection. I find that comforting. " he ventured, climbing out of the car to reacquaint himself with his old life. At once he spied a spindly old man sitting on the little porch of a house across the way. "Uncle Joe? How are you? "

The wizened faced elder, relaxing comfortably in his rocking chair, gave the younger man a wide almost completely toothless grin. "Little J! Come back home for a visit. The military suits you, I see. "

Jesus crossed the street to where Uncle Joe sat with a small wash tub of iced beer by his left hand. Joe, an old family friend, had lost his own wife a few years back. Naturally he'd begun to revisit old habits which he'd given up for her sake.

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