Church (Site of)

Mariana and the other women lived beside the church in a small valley where rain filled narrow ditches and sunlight appeared only at midday. They carried water, carried firewood and carried children between houses, while the church stood empty except for birds and the smell of wet stone. On feast days they walked past it with eggs, bread and cloth for the altar, not because they believed the ceremonies but because the valley remembered women who had bled, birthed and buried children there. The church did not judge them; it waited. When Mariana died, the others cut a hole under the floor and laid her beside the names no longer visible, believing the stone would hold what heaven had forgotten.