He read.

He read about the Word of God, and how it came to him in a dream, and about how he went to church and they talked about the big fish, and he read about how he sat up on the rooftop and wondered about the Flesh become Words. And he read about the Hillbrook Aquarium and the trilobites and about how he took the tram out to the lake and rented a canoe, and paddled out to the island. And then he read about how the Author of His Being walked across the lake, and about how Jonah argued with him and called him a bastard, and about how the Author handed him a thin manuscript of typed pages, stapled in one corner.

And then Jonah read that he read, and then he read about what he read about, and then he read about that.

And then finally he read this very sentence, and his mind boggled.

And then he read this sentence, and then the next one, and the next, and then he went on to the next section and read that too, and then he stopped because there was nothing more to read.

He closed the manuscript carefully, set it gently on the bench beside him. Then he folded his hands in his lap, peacefully, and stared out over the lake again.