Greenock Inverclyde, Sitiawan Perak, Basildon Essex, Reading, Billericay, Essex, Coventry Road Coventry, Dejesus searched high and wide for a bitter cup of coffee. When he was in the mood for bitter coffee he felt as if the world was tossing him about like a rudderless skiff, his legs buckling under the weight of his gluttonous slake. Word had it that a bitter cup of coffee could be had at the Targoviste Café in Dambovita or the Zoersel Café in Antwerpen, or at the Juelsminde Café in Vejle or the Reykjavk Café in Gullbringusysla. As Dejesus went about on foot and hadn’t the wherewithal or money to travel abroad, he had to settle for a cup of sweet coffee at the Greek Delicatessen.
A ham radio enthusiast in Rschlikon Zurich cranked the dial to Schweizerische, a faint hissing static issuing from the speakers. In the background could be heard a man repeating over and over again, ‘…Ik heb andere whore' s handschoen...’. After taking his coffee Dejesus headed north towards the Church of the Perpetual Sinner, where that day the annual Coveting of Magellan’s Glove was to take place. Fernão de Magalhães, born in the Spring of 1480 and falling dead in 1521, his death witnessed by his first and second mates Pigafetta and Ginés de Mafra, "When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries... The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly... Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice... A native hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the native's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide."[1]
Upon entering the cloister, which was festooned with luxurious rugs and opulent trifle, some so otherworldly he felt like he was entering a Egyptian sepulcher rather than a church, Dejesus knelt and said a shrift prayer, ‘…dear Father please forgive me for my short shriftings…’. To his left sat an ogress, her legs scalloped with rot, her hands atremble beneath a painting of Christ on the Cross. To his right, astride a multicoloured weft, stood a giant of a man, his eyes darker than bootblack, the ogress giving him the shrift eye. ‘…beg your pardon…’ said Dejesus, his eyes on the ogress, ‘…is this the queue for the coveting…?’ Without moving a muscle the ogress said ‘…this is the one for the annunciation, the coveting one is over there…’. The giant of man, his bootblack eye squinting, said ‘…there, aside the rector’s closet…’. Bowing cautiously, the top of his head un-tonsured, Dejesus headed in the direction of the rector’s closet, his thoughts on Magellan’s glove and bamboo spears.
[1] The Death of Magellan, 1521, EyeWitness to History (2001). Retrieved 9 March 2006.
A ham radio enthusiast in Rschlikon Zurich cranked the dial to Schweizerische, a faint hissing static issuing from the speakers. In the background could be heard a man repeating over and over again, ‘…Ik heb andere whore' s handschoen...’. After taking his coffee Dejesus headed north towards the Church of the Perpetual Sinner, where that day the annual Coveting of Magellan’s Glove was to take place. Fernão de Magalhães, born in the Spring of 1480 and falling dead in 1521, his death witnessed by his first and second mates Pigafetta and Ginés de Mafra, "When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries... The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly... Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice... A native hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the native's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide."[1]
Upon entering the cloister, which was festooned with luxurious rugs and opulent trifle, some so otherworldly he felt like he was entering a Egyptian sepulcher rather than a church, Dejesus knelt and said a shrift prayer, ‘…dear Father please forgive me for my short shriftings…’. To his left sat an ogress, her legs scalloped with rot, her hands atremble beneath a painting of Christ on the Cross. To his right, astride a multicoloured weft, stood a giant of a man, his eyes darker than bootblack, the ogress giving him the shrift eye. ‘…beg your pardon…’ said Dejesus, his eyes on the ogress, ‘…is this the queue for the coveting…?’ Without moving a muscle the ogress said ‘…this is the one for the annunciation, the coveting one is over there…’. The giant of man, his bootblack eye squinting, said ‘…there, aside the rector’s closet…’. Bowing cautiously, the top of his head un-tonsured, Dejesus headed in the direction of the rector’s closet, his thoughts on Magellan’s glove and bamboo spears.
[1] The Death of Magellan, 1521, EyeWitness to History (2001). Retrieved 9 March 2006.
No comments:
Post a Comment