Unsuccessful at managing anything audible, Helen picked up the pace, as she was already damning herself for getting into the habit of skipping her perfume application. No matter the kind of scent she picked, it would inevitably irritate her nostrils, and she had gone through too many tissue boxes to be liberal with such indulgences. Two young men stood on Helen’s porch, one straightening his slim black tie as the other shifted his batch of pamphlets underneath an elbow. Helen greeted the sight with an exuberant smile as she pushed outward on the wire screen at the front door. “How can I help you gentlemen?” Though Helen’s voice sounded strained and out of practice, her coy smile had been perfected over a lifetime, although lately only in front of her mirror. The pair looked the part, in matching out昀椀ts of white short-sleeved shirts tucked behind thin, shining leather belts. “Hi ma’am,” the one on the right began, standing taller and rounding his chest in such a way as to demonstrate his commitment to community leadership. “My name is Elijah, and this is my friend, Isaiah. We were curious to know, have you heard about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?” Helen was delighted that she in fact did have this knowledge to participate in a conversation, as that didn’t happen often. It had been a long time since she’d been mobile enough to attend church, but she easily recalled the fabled man of her Sunday school lessons as a young girl. “Why, yes!” Elijah smiled, getting excited himself. “Would you be open to having a talk with us about our Father in Heaven?” Helen’s smile transformed into a grin that revealed the wide gaps between each tooth that had appeared in her youth. Perhaps too quickly, Helen pushed the screen open wider in her rush to welcome her dignitaries indoors. Isaiah startled, already perturbed by the elderly woman’s unseemly presentation. Helen sensed this hesitation on Isaiah’s part as Elijah walked past, so she beckoned him in with increasingly urgent waves toward her pink-robed body. Helen patted down her short, wiry hair as Isaiah at 45 ■ PLAINS PARADOX