Holy

It’s common knowledge that every roadside motel along the Trans-Canada Highway from Winnipeg to Timmins hates tree planters. 

We were staying at one on a small-town stirp a few hours from Kenora. We moved easily in two trucks as a small crew of twelve, picking up shit-bit contracts short drives down logging roads. 

Our day off was around the corner and we were full of eight hours’ worth of restless energy. Paul and Casey immediately claimed party room.

All rippers had a theme, so when we were told to bring all the Bibles from the bedside table drawers, no one thought to question it. 

By the time we were all in the same place, most of us were drunk and the rest were high. The TV was on, the hockey game blaring and bets being placed. Cigarette smoke rose from the ash trays and festered on the outdated bedding. 

It wasn’t until nearly two in the morning that Casey told us what the Bibles were for. Each room took theirs out to the parking lot, behind all the transport trucks parked for the night. Paul lit a cigarette and stumbled into the ditch to grab rocks. He made a ring of stones, the wings of his camo hat flapping, the light from the only streetlamp glinting of his reflective stripes. 

He directed us to drop all the Bibles in the middle of the circle he’d made. There were eight in total. Someone still had alcohol left, so we coated the pile with it. Paul’s cigarette hung loose out of the corner of his mouth, glowing between his grinning yellowed teeth as he lit the corner of one spine.  

One of the girls threw an arm around my shoulder and held a hand to her mouth as she screamed into the rock wall of the Canadian Shield. The light bounced off our moving bodies as we danced around the flames. We were coated in a sheen of sweat and our throats hoarse. The flames curled the pages, “white like wool, as white as the snow,” and Casey’s “eyes were like blazing fire.” Revelation 1:14

We scattered when the lights of the office came on. As we drove off shortly thereafter, wisps of smoke floated off the embers. Paul slunk down into his seat, the corner of his yellow smile pulling up. He flicked the ash of his cigarette out the window.