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MARCHING POWDER

‘Thomas, I am a Mormon,’ he declared.
The way he said it was like a confession and the words were just left there, dangling in the air, like he informed me he was a homosexual or had cancer. He looked at me very earnestly, but I didn’t know how I was supposed to react.

‘Really?’ I nodded my head. ‘That’s nice.’
It was a stupid thing to say, but I couldn’t think of anything else. To be honest, I had a bad impression of Mormons. Even though I didn’t really know much about them, people always talked about them in a negative way, like they do about bible bashers and all those religions that take your money. Fat Joe was the first Mormon I’d met in person and I really liked him. If the rest were like him, then I figured the Mormons couldn’t be too bad and I should at least hear him out.

‘Thomas, if I gave you some of our literature, would you be prepared to read it? Don’t worry. I’m not going to push anything on you. It’s up to you.’
‘Sure. Why not?’
He tried to leave another fifty-dollar note that time, but I refused. I intended to read the material he had given me, but I wasn’t going to do it because he was paying me to. Besides, if I accepted the money, it would only make it harder to say no when he came again.

The next time Fat Joe visited, things got even more serious than I expected.
‘Have you read the material I gave you?’ he wanted to know.
‘Some of it. But I’ve been very busy,’ I lied. I hadn’t read much of it at all. Since his most recent visit, there had been several parties with the tourists and I always found it very difficult to concentrate on reading when I was high on cocaine. Especially the Mormon bible.
I don’t think he believed me – what could keep me so busy when I was stuck in prison? – but he nodded kindly. ‘Yes, I understand. And what did you think of what you read?’
‘Interesting . . . umm . . . I’m not sure about it, though.’ I told him I wasn’t ready to commit. Actually, I wanted to say ‘no’ outright, but it was so difficult because Fat Joe was such a nice man and I felt like it would break his heart if he had to condemn me to burn in Mormon hell for refusing to believe in his religion. It got worse, though. Not

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