“Do you really want to go back up there?” Thomas asked. The man sat down in the grass and looked bewildered. “I don’t know,” he said. “But don’t you see? This is the one thing I can do as well as anyone else. I can’t plow. I can’t build. But I can suffer. God wants suffering now.” The priest opened his mouth to contradict the man, but nothing came out. “Shit,” Thomas said. And then he helped the dwarf back up the ladder and tied him fast to the cross.
