They were delightful chaps, charming, thoughtful and odd. They seemed to perch on the world more lightly than the rest of us, and it gave them the virtue of unpredictability. Jeremiah was a palaeontologist, keen to talk about fossils and dodos. Our Father's wife, sheltering in the gatehouse, was keen to talk about Texas. All the sprinklers going on the lawns.
People are so careful about their lawns in Fort Worth.
Like another temptation, the American suburbs seemed to stir in the desert haze. But it was only Our Father, lawn-green with exertion. Sweaty as an evangelist, he was returning from an expedition to the cave. He knelt inside the gateway. His wife knelt beside him.