Excerpt: Zombie Dawn

Lady Daitura’s smile lightened up a little bit, and she seemed genuinely happy. “Well, then I should probably give you this.” She said, and pulled out a beautiful necklace. It was a piece of creamy porcelain, with the picture of a woman engraved on it. “Who is it?” I asked, taking the piece of jewelry and carefully fitting it on to my neck. “That is a portrait of Saint Clare.” Lady Daitura told me, “Patron saint of television.” I just stared quizzically at her, “There is a patron saint of television?” I asked her, and the old woman nodded, chuckling a bit as she did so, “Yes. However, the most important thing about Saint Clare, is that when you want to pray to Ayizan, you pray to her.”
I rubbed the piece of porcelain in between my thumb and finger for a moment, not really sure what to say to her. I was not really sure what I was supposed to do with my conversation with Ayizan, but at the same time, I suddenly felt safe, and in a strange way kind of protected. The thing is, my parents are not incredibly bigoted, but they are practicing Christians. I had never really gotten into it, though. It was not that I denied the existence of God or anything, but it was really hard to believe in something that I could not experience in one way or another.
Once, Angela told me that the world was her god. That everything she saw, she touched, she experienced was some sort of mark of divinity. Even humans in all of their imperfect glory were gods to her. The thing is, I think that was a bit too broad for me. I found it hard to look at an ant or a plastic spork and believe that there was something holy in it. However, spirits I could believe in. I had talked to one, after all, and though they were not everywhere and in everything, it seemed that they were never all that far. So despite the fact that I was as European as crumpets at four, at that moment I was beginning to wonder if I had not just found the perfect religion for me, whether or not people believed that I cursed them with silly dolls.
“Thank you.” I said to Lady Daitura, although I wanted to tell her so much more. She just smiled at me, and this time I could tell that it really was genuine. She stepped to one side of the door, and beckoned me in. Suddenly I became very nervous, because I had no idea of how I was going to repair the feelings of someone who could barely feel them, but after a moment of hesitation, I walked through the doorway.