A Reader’s dream

The trio on the porch were figures in a woodcut engraving: the Ancient on his throne of splendid pillows, a yellow pet relaxed in his lap gazing gravely in the drawing light at the small servant bowed at his master’s feet, and the arms of the black arrow-like daughter lifted above them all as in benediction.

But there was no prayer in Joel’s mind; rather, nothing a net of words could capture, for, with one exception, all his prayers of the past had been simple concrete requests: God, give me a bicycle, a knife with seven blades, a box of oil paints. Only how, how could you say something so indefinite, so meaningless as this: God, let me be loved.

“Amen”, whispered Zoo.

And in this moment, like a swift intake of breath, the rain came.

(Truman Capote)