A Conflicted Lieutenant

     As you know, I have been pursuing the Whiskey Priest's path, and that has brought me to a town outside the border. I was not in this town long, but I was there long enough to see the whiskey priest slip into old ways. The  people knew he was not a good priest. A couple days after I arrived the priest set out to hear the confessions of a dying man, he knew the man who led him was setting him up but he went anyway, and sure enough he was caught. Trapped by the lieutenant.

     At this time the heavens opened and pored out rain, maybe God granted him bad weather to delay the arrest. The priest and the lieutenant went inside a hut and killed spare time with card tricks and conversation. I discovered the officer's reason for hating the priests and denying God's existence. This man had hatred for the things that transpired and for the people who carried them out, but I believe he likes the whiskey priest. They spoke of faith and reasons. The priest gave completely truthful answers and shocked the lieutenant with his honesty and sense of judgement. As the rain started to subside I believe the priest found more favor in the lieutenant's eyes.

     Even though the whiskey priest found favor in the officer, the lieutenant had a promise to himself he had to uphold and a duty to capture and shoot all the priest. He had already let the priest go twice he could not afford to do it a third time. So I watched as they brought this man to prison. The officer could not let him go, but he could try and grant his dying wish. He called for Padre Jose to come and hear the confessions of the priest, but he refused the request. The lieutenants voice grew gruff and sad  as he exchanged words with the priest in the cell. The priest wasnt such a bad man after all, maybe just a bad priest The man was sentenced to death in the morning. I listened as the priest prayed for the people he had encountered but above all he prayed for his daughter Brigita. And hearing him pray gave me a deep sad-ness for him and the fate that had befallen him.  And I knew that the lieutenant felt the same way I did when I saw the same sadness layered with confusion in his eyes.

     I awoke early the next day and saw as the priest was led to his death. It was a quick and looked relatively painless. But I could not help the feeling of hope dying along with the priest. He was the last practicing priest around in a long time. I saw the lieutenant later that day and he did not have the same gusto he had before capturing the priest, now he looked mechanic, dismayed by the priest's death. This was not the feeling he thought he'd have after he killed the last priest. Now I don't know what will become of him. Or our country for that matter.

But maybe not all is lost, just today i overheard a boy bragging to his friend that he was housing the last priest alive, so maybe there is hope for Mexico after all.