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Miss Rose: Here, we do not use the word...
[mouthing the word "dead"]
Miss Rose: We believe that when the human life is over, the soul returns to trees, to air, to fire, to water, to animals. So that Rowan Morrison has simply returned to the life forces in another form.
Sergeant Howie: Do you mean to say that you... you teach the children this stuff?
Miss Rose: Yes. I told you, it it what we believe.
Sergeant Howie: They never learn anything of Christianity?
Miss Rose: Only as a comparative religion. The children find it far easier to picture reincarnation than resurrection. Those rotting bodies are a great stumbling block for the childish imagination.
Sergeant Howie: Why, aye. Of course. And may I ask, where is the rotting body of Rowan Morrison?
Miss Rose: Why, it's where you'd expect it to be; in the earth.
Sergeant Howie: You mean in the churchyard?
Miss Rose: In a manner of speaking.
Sergeant Howie: No. In plain speaking.
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Willow: [bussing Howie's dishes] Now, I wonder what you'll be wanting for afters?
Sergeant Howie: Oh, I'll have an apple.
Willow: No apples.
Sergeant Howie: [surprised] No apples? On an island famous for its fruit and vegetables?
Willow: I expect they've all be deported. You can have, uh, peaches and cream, if you like.
Sergeant Howie: Aye, from a can, I suppose.
Ian Campbell
Extended Reading
