Summary

The men move things when they come to Mary’s house. Even though Mary asks them to replace the things they have moved, they refuse to do so. She knows it is their way of asserting their power. She is not irritated by them. The only piece of furniture Mary refuses to allow the men to use is a chair on which no one has ever sat. This chair is reserved in her husband’s memory. When one of the men goes against her wishes and sits there anyway, Mary threatens him with a sharp knife.

Mary remembers that before the crucifixion, Marcus from Cana, who called himself Mary’s cousin, came to visit her in her house in Nazareth. She noticed he was different from his childhood days. There seemed to be a hardness in his heart. He told her how her...