The Road To Perdition, Quilted Wings, Verse Iii

I thought I saw her falling while I was harvesting in the cornfield. I was alone, my wife was dead, and I was in despair. I got off the tractor and found her lying on the dirt. She was naked and had wings. This could not be real, just like when I would think my wife was setting the table. I picked her up and carried her to the house. Her wings were badly damaged. I laid her in the guest bed. It had not been used in years. I covered her and sat and waited. When she awoke she said, "Teach me the ways of the flesh." She stayed for sixty days. I asked her why she had to go. She said; "I must find my place in the world." Each evening after prayers, I would go to my bedroom and think of my wife on the bed and remember these words spoken in her soft melodic voice; "I want to be one with your flesh." I would take my gun, empty the chambers, press it to my temple and pull the trigger. I was trying to forget. I knew one night I would forget to empty the chamber. The angel left with nothing. I used to bring her the feathers to her wings when they fell off. When they were completely gone I tended the open wounds on her back. I thought about the feathers. I once showed her a large chest that contained things belonging to my wife. I had given everything away and it sat empty, like me. I opened it. She had knitted her feathers into a large quilt. She left me a note, it read, "Forget." After prayers, I would lie under the quilt and forget about the gun.