AtD: Lew's experience of grace

[Robin Landseadel]

		Now and then, unannounced, Drave showed up to review Lew's
	progress. "First of all," he advised, "I can't speak for God, but  
your wife
	is not going to forgive you. She's never coming back. If that's what  
you
	thought the payoff here was going to be, you need to re-evaluate."

		The soles of Lew's feet began to ache, as if wanting to be taken all
	the way to the center of the Earth.

		"What if I didn't care what it took to bring her back?"

		"Penance? You'll do that anyway. You're not Catholic, Mr.
	Basnight?"

		"Presbyterian."

		"Many people believe that there is a mathematical correlation
	between sin, penance, and redemption. More sin, more penance, and
	so forth. Our own point has always been that there is no connection.  
All
	the variables are independent. You do penance not because you have
	sinned but because it is your destiny. You are redeemed not through
	doing penance but because it happens. Or doesn't happen.

		"It's nothing supernatural. Most people have a wheel riding up on
	a wire, or some rails in the street, some kind of guide or groove, to
	keep them moving in the direction of their destiny. But you keep
	bouncing free. Avoiding penance and thereby definition."

		"Going off my trolley. And you're trying to help me get back to the
	way most people live, 's that it?"

		"'Most people,'" not raising his voice, though something in Lew
	jumped as if he had, "are dutiful and dumb as oxen. Delirium  
literally 	
	means going out of a furrow you've been plowing. Think of this as a
	productive sort of delirium."

		"What do I do with that?"

		"It's something you don't want?"

		"Would you?"

		"Not sure. Maybe."

	AtD 41