Free Prodigal Blues by Gary A. Braunbeck Page A

the discourteous…"
    "…and there is no room in the burg of the Scyldings for the ignorant…"
    "…Grendel was proof of that…"
    "…he told us over and over and over…"
    "…and over and over…"
    "…there is no forgiveness…"
    "…not for forgetting that…"
    "…for lessening the flow and music of God's language…"
    "…no forgiveness…"
    "…only a new lesson…"
    "…a different approach…"
    "…God does not reward the lazy…"
    "…He does not love the simple-minded…"
    "…He does not tolerate the discourteous…"
    "…to Him, they are as monsters…"
    "…and there is no heaven for monsters…"
    "…so lonely…"
    "…and how do monsters begin…"
    "…they are born first with lazy tongues…"
    "…careless grammar…"
    "…which makes their voices ugly…"
    "…and the songs they sing shrill and tuneless…"
    "…and that ugliness spreads to their faces, and then to their souls…"
    "…but some of them cannot see it even then…"
    "…because the soul of a monster is a tricky thing…"
    "…a mischievous thing…"
    "…and Grendel would quote something whenever we did not understand what he meant…"
    "…over and over and over…"
    "…about what monsters would walk the streets…"
    "…and over and…"
    "…if our faces were as deformed as our souls…"
    "…and Grendel would punish those whose speech fell offensive on his ear…"
    "…offensive speech deforms not only the soul of the speaker…"
    "…but of the listener, as well…"
    "…and with each transgression, you would lose a part of your soul…"
    "…the part that was hidden in your face…"
    "…what monstrosities would walk the streets…"
    "…if we lost enough of our souls, then we would understand…"
    "…and if we lost enough of our souls…"
    "…the part hidden in our faces…"
    "…then he would turn to our bodies…"
    "…because the monstrosity spreads, you see…"
    "…it spreads so fast …"
    "…and our souls continued being punished…"
    "…terrible punishment…"
    "…awful, painful…"
    "…lonely…"
    "…and if you dared to scream or call out…"
    "…so lonely…"
    "…if you cried…"
    "…if you so much as whimpered…"
    "…or even wept…"
    "…so lonely…"
    "…Grendel's outrage was openly to be seen…"
    "Slow down," I said.
    "…you did not want Grendel to be angry…"
    "…oh, no…"
    "…so lonely…"
    "…because his anger would not be just yours to suffer…"
    "…oh, no, never…"
    "…always never…"
    "…not ever…"
    "…a family suffers together…"
    "…if one hurts, you all hurt…"
    "…he told us it was only fair …"
    "…only just…"
    "…only moral…"
    "…only honorable…"
    I lifted my hands.   "Stop it, please."
    "…if one of us made a mistake in speech…"
    "…or in actions…"
    "…then it was all our faults…"
    "… our mistake…"
    "…and mistakes must be chastised…"
    "…only fair, that is what Grendel said…"
    "…and so he hurt us…"
    "…he hurt us so much …"
    "…I still bleed down there…"
    "…I still leak…"
    "…still feel the burning…"
    "…the pieces of skin that are missing…"
    "…the taste…"
    "… his taste…"
    "…all over…"
    "…inside…"
    "…sometimes his taste was all the food we were allowed…"
    "…for days and days…"
    "Jesus Christ!" I shouted.   "Stop it, please.   I can't—"
    "…sometimes he would lock us away…"
    "…one by one…"
    "…lonely…"
    "…and leave us in the dark to think about what we had done…"
    "…and wonder what he was going to do to us when he brought us back out into the light…"
    "…so bright and scary…"
    "…I miss my mommy…"
    "…I wonder if Dad will remember me…"
    "…if they are even still there…"
    "…do not want them to have forgotten me…"
    "…hurts so much sometimes I just want to die…"
    "…scared, I am so scared of the light all the time…"
    "…please do not be afraid of us…"
    "…do not scream or call out…"
    "…it is important…"
    "…you have to understand…"
    "…we do not