ICON OF THE SAINT AND DEMON
It was an icon unlike any other Nicholas had ever seen before. He saw it in the apartment of one of his colleagues in the English Department at the university who had a small party at her place on Doroshenko Street. He couldn’t help but stare at it. It drew him closer and closer. It was a fairly new, recently painted icon on a piece of dark brown stained pine – not the typical wood used in traditional icons where pear wood was most common. It was about seven inches wide and about nine inches tall. A haloed, white-bearded saint was holding a long-handled hatchet. The hatchet had a thin black handle and gold-colored head and blade. The blade matched the color of the saint’s halo. The saint was wearing a loose white cassock with a reddish sash belt and a robe cove
