Dragon Hoard and Other Tales of Faerie

  The girl grew in happiness. Two sons and a daughter were brought for his inspection, in their satiny baptismal gowns, and later stood for first communions and confirmations of their own. The gargoyle learned their names and watched them carefully at church, although they never took any notice of him unless their mother was present. But from the tears she blinked away as they readied themselves in line, they were dear to her, and thus precious to him as well.

  He only saw Steven at special occasions and holidays, but the man seemed to still love the girl. Her lithe figure thickened with childbearing, and she now needed glasses, but she still waved to him every Sunday, and during the week for mass as well.

  His favorite times were when she showed up to work in the garden on church clean-up days. She would always pick a flowerbed to weed where she could talk to him, to tell him of the children he no longer saw. They had moved on in their lives, to college and jobs in other cities and did not often come home. But they still held a place in her heart.

  He was glad he still had a place in hers.