Elder Perfect Smith is walking through the Wal-Mart wearing a spiffy name tag that says "Elder Perfect Smith" and he's wearing a nifty dress shirt, slacks, shiny shoes and a tastefully sober tie and looks otherwise to be about 19.
Indrid says;
"Elder? You can be an elder when you've smelled your own blood one too many times. You can be an elder when you have a friend who self-immolates. You can be an elder when you've had a woman take your fluids and your heart and run. You can be an elder when you've heard your Father wailing in a far room at the death of one of his children. You can be an elder when you've shaken the hand of a man who later is arrested for raping children. You can be an elder when you've seen one picture of a gunshot to the head and then made yourself look at 100 more. You can be an elder when you've heard screams you can neither trace or identify in the night, in the distance. You can be an elder when you've sat in the neonatal nursery at the hospital and listened to a few parents weeping over the dead sacks of new bones they thought would be their new baby. You can be an elder when you've been cut off from the world you know save some little yellow sleeping pills and a window high in the wall showing you a merciless bright spring sky. You can be an elder when you've heard your own child scream in pain and are not able to run fast enough to reach their side. You can be an elder when you've looked up at least once and declared to heaven that if there is a God he must hate you, and therefore you hate him. You can be an elder when you've begged His forgiveness at 3 in the morning so you can finally sleep. You can be an elder when you've wanted to murder someone. You can be an elder when you've read at least one book with descriptions of people fucking. You can be an elder when you admit you like the idea of an apocalypse in part because all the bad people will be consumed in fire. You can be an elder when you look at that silly badge one day and wonder what the hell ever got into you. Till then, you are no one's elder, nor an elder in the sight of any known God, save the God of nifty badges, pressed dress shirts, shiny shoes, and tasteful ties picked out by your mother. Indrid will call you Elder Little Bitch. How's that?"
Happy New Year!
