Joan

by Katherine J. Chen

She knows this is her mother’s natural tongue: the speech of suffering, the patois of prayer and commiseration, of one human being imparting to another these questionable words of comfort—all affliction comes of God.

It is Christ’s grand design, like a scattering of seeds. Every forest, lane, and village, every town and city and unswept alley of the kingdom, her mother has explained to her, is covered in such seeds of misery, so the only thing to do is to learn to accept the pain. Accept and submit to God’s will, whatever you lose. She, Joan, doesn’t speak this language. What’s more, she does not want to learn.

So, call her simple, but she believes this war has nothing to do with God. It’s about money. It’s about land.