the ends of the Earth, or have they come to their senses and deposed him?”

He waited for an answer, his mind drifting a thousand miles away, trying to imagine what had happened after his departure; and what could have happened if things had turned out differently. As he sat breathing quietly, he noticed the faintest hint of herbs in the musty air, and the smell brought him back to the lonely, quiet space.

Standing and sidestepping out from the pew, he passed beyond the final row of benches and climbed the steps to the pulpit. There, the minister’s copy of the Holy Book sat open, left to fade and gather dust like just another insignificant relic, and yet as he looked down upon the rows of pews running back towards the vestibule he could almost imagine them packed full by the people of the town,...

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