When the strange man comes to town, he requests that room.

“It has a leak,” Al tells him.

“It’s okay. That room has memories for me.”

Al rents it to him. Who else would take it, anyway? “But still, why would he want to be in there?” he asks Thelma. He takes the man buckets to catch the water. Maybe the drought had affected the guy. Maybe he wants to be near any water. Then, too, Thelma says, “Maybe it’s a miracle. The Catholics would know, wouldn’t they? Maybe he’s a priest.”

The new man is somewhat handsome and beautifully dark with unusual eyes. He wears nice jeans and a long ponytail. Someone has ironed and creased his pants so it is assumed that he has a woman at home, probably a wife or girlfriend. On the other hand, Linda says, “Maybe he has money and sends them out to the laundry.” Anyway, the girls and women keep watch on him, his nice thin legs, his quiet manner, his hands fine enough to be an artist’s hands. At first even the older women eye him, but not for long, and after a while, when the young women smile at him, their mothers and aunts poke them with their elbows. They’ve had time and experience enough to assess him better than the young girls. There aren’t words for it yet, what is strange about him. “Something about this man is not quite right.”

Except for his exceptional legs and good looks, he seems ordinary enough to most. He eats at Linda’s restaurant and leaves better tips than the other men, making them feel cheap. She gives him special service and wants to run her hands down his hair, his back. He says “Good morning,” in a cheerful, mannerly voice and the other men look up from their coffee cups and conversations about what they used to catch besides the clap. Unlike the other visitors and strangers to town, he doesn’t complain about the lack of water. Unlike the tourists, he doesn’t pass through quickly because the ocean is so far away. He is friendly, but still is shy and withdrawn. No matter who tries, they can’t get to know him.

He isn’t a fisherman, that much is certain. He seems to find a beauty in the desolation because he is often seen out in the moonlight standing where the water once was, looking into the moonlit distances, looking all around as if he could even see where Ruth had been caulking and painting the boat in case the Rain Priest, when he arrives, needs the boat in better repair. Of course, she is the only one who knows about her visit to the once-white dwelling places.

He walks and he collects shining things from the land that was once ocean and from the streets.

After a while, the Christian converts feel afraid of him, and there are many. Except Wilma says to them, “Think of all the strange things in Christianity. What about the fishermen following Jesus Christ? Just how likely do you think that would be? Look at old Vince. Think about it, will you? Would he lay down his nets and follow a man that looked like Jesus?”