Wise Blood

by Flannery O'Connor

They told him he didn’t have any soul and left for their brothel. He took a long time to believe them because he wanted to believe them. All he wanted was to believe them and get rid of it once and for all, and he saw the opportunity here to get rid of it without corruption, to be converted to nothing instead of to evil.

And you can tell people better how terrible sin is if you know from your own personal experience.”

The black sky was underpinned with long silver streaks that looked like scaffolding and depth on depth behind it were thousands of stars that all seemed to be moving very slowly as if they were about some vast construction work that involved the whole order of the universe and would take all time to complete. No one was paying any attention to the sky.

“Some preacher has left his mark on you,” the blind man said with a kind of snicker. “Did you follow for me to take it off or give you another one?”