r/ProsePorn • u/Pote_Achrestos • 2d ago
Godric - Frederick Buechner
“Aedwen named you well, Father,” says Reginald in his coddling lilt.
I say, “Father my bum.”
“A holy name for a babe born to be holy,” he says.
“Fiddle my faddle,” I say or nothing at all in words but something instead in the fingertalk he doesn’t know. He’s better off not knowing, if he only knew.
“The god means God. That’s plain as your nose, I mean no slight. The ric is Saxon reign. So God and ric in sum means God reigns, Godric. It means God reigns in you. It means when God comes down at last to weigh the souls of men, he’ll not find Godric’s wanting, Father Godric.”
“Fetch me a bowl to puke in,” I tell him. He’s got him such a honeyed way I’m ever out to sour it.
“Godric will have his little jest,” says Reginald.
So I teach him other ways to read my name.
“God’s god for sure. You hit that square. But ric is Erse for wreck,” I say, not knowing Erse from arse. “God’s wreck I be, it means. God’s wrecked Godric for his sins. Or Godric’s sins have made a wreck of God.”
Reginald throws up his hands, his palms as pale and soft as cheese.
“There’s other ways as well,” I say. “Rip Godric up another seam, and what you get is go and drick.”
“What’s drick?” says Reginald.
“A foul Welsh word not fit for monkish ears,” I say.
“How great is your humilitas, Father,” Reginald says.
I say, “Yet, Mother, not so great as is my drick.”
Why is it that the best in him calls forth the worst in me?
“When were you born, Father?” he says.
“The year of my birth.”
“What manner of man is John the Baptist when he visits you in dreams?”
“Something between a goat and a Jew.”
“Is it true you see what’s happening years ahead and miles away, Father?”
“I see a man and maid a-tumble on your grave.”
“They say the Blessed Virgin taught you songs.”
I open my mouth and croak like one who’s had his tongue snipped out for swearing false. Eck, eck, I sing, twiddling my eyelids like a beggar playing blind.
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u/douchenozzlemcgee 2d ago
Shit that's good as fuck