The locals called the town La Cap, but also Capetta, Caprina, Caprotta. In English we can call it “The Little Goat.” . The sun of Southern Italy worked down upon it, alighting the mountains’ slopes with the yellow of local Broom.

In the piazza the townsfolk are gathering in the shade of the church. To see so many in the middle of the day was unusual. Something of a gathering. Something was wrong.

His wrists were nailed to the great wooden cross that stood above the altar, dark red stains had leaked and dried around them, his head slumped down over his chest, his ankle had also been nailed into the base of the upright, upon which the other foot rested; his whole body hung as Jesus upon the cross. His name was Raul. It was the first son of the town’s richest man.