Chapter V
Ecumenical Lightning Church of
the Fourteen Rivers
Minister Leonard Durles removed his motorcycle helmet, hung it on the porch stanchion, extricated a brass key from the twelve others within his pocket, inserted it into the front door and twisted the metal. The cylinder admitted three clicks and yielded. He hated that Genet had insisted upon the security device, but after they had been robbed thrice, the thirty-nine-year-old Australian-born religious leader could no longer ignore the threat of thieves. “The ones who took from us aren’t part of my circuit,” he had said to his wife just before he drove his moped to town to fetch a stainless steel lock for the house they had shared—entrance unbarred—for six years. Even though he had installed the device eleven months ago, the th
