The pastor quietly drink him bush tea. Pin me down with him eyes. Wait to see what me going say. I want to come up with some kind of answer, prove how smart I is. Then I come to understand, and don’t know what to say. I have no answer, even though is a question I been asking meself all me life. Finally he take me out of me misery.

‘Let me ask the question another way. What role do you wish to play in life? Mine is to preach, to lead. What is yours? You don’t know, do you?’ Then him come down hard on me. ‘From where I’m standing, it’s to play the stammering slave boy who bows and scrapes for any master.’

I open my mouth to say something, to shout out is not so. But then I feel me face get hot with the shame of the truth him is saying. Look down at me feet.

The pastor take a few steps closer, lay a hand on me shoulder. Wait till I look up at him.

‘While we are here on earth, the most important part of our work is to discover what kind of man we want to be. This is the work the Lord asks of us, William. Nothing less. And there is always plenty of work to be done at church. Church is a sanctuary, a place where, through the words of our saviour Jesus Christ, we turn weak souls into strong ones. Where we learn to no longer see with the eyes of slavery, but with human eyes, the eyes of men. Where we move from being children into maturity. Where we plant the seeds of courage that will ripen. Blossom. Flourish and rise up like there is always a new tomorrow. Church prepares us, so we can break the silence of slavery.’

I find meself nodding and smiling, uplifted the way William the Second lifted up on the wind and hovered. Him words make me feel a happy madness. Nobody ever talk to me bout these things before. Is the way, I always imagined, a father talked to a son. The father I have, but him is not up to the task.

I look in the face of the pastor and see how young him is. How him is doing so much with him life, when I do so little with mine. Come to understand how much wasted time I been spending only feeling hard done by and sorry for meself.

Him say gently, ‘There is no great dignity in remaining quiet, William. Only action will relieve the suffering caused by silence.’

Then him go back to looking at the clouds and I head back into the church, shutting the door softly behind me.