The Even Hand

Your grandmother Ilsa kept two secrets all her life: where she went every Thursday evening, and the iron key you found in her button tin, tagged 'south door' in her upright hand. Tonight the key turned in the south door of St. Alban's-on-the-Hill, and the great church took you in without a word. The nave stands empty, lit by one stubborn votive and the moon coming pale through the clerestory glass. If the old stories about the Order of the Even Hand are true, there is a stair somewhere under your feet. You have come to find her Thursday.