The Last Chapter

"The Last Chapter" centers on a friendship between a believer and a non-believer and an investigation into abuse at a mysterious nursing home. In this excerpt, it is the believer who finds himself down on his luck: The man, who used to exorcise, to dance, to sing, to heal, stood there in the freezing night coiled in on himself, devoid of strength and, perhaps, hope-defenseless, impotent. Gone were his charisma, his smile, the sparkle in his eyes. Those eyes that used to stare at evil, to threaten it, to order it out of someone's body, eyes that shone in the spotlight of television interviews, now they were buffeted by blistering winds and cold. That voice that resounded under the vaults of the churches or in the streets . that ordered a maimed patient to stand and walk, that made pronouncements against AIDS, slavery, and injustice . that sang joyful songs in the festivals before an oceanic TV audience, now languished in the depth of his throat .