The next journey

Palomeya does not keep a chapel of its own. The people who go for you are already travellers — to Bari in an ordinary week, to Lourdes when the train allows, to Athos when the boat and the permit agree.

Your order joins the next journey to that place. The days on the card are a promise of a window, not a locked hour. If the shrine is closed or the road is stopped, the visit waits for the following passage.

This is slower than a counter in a sacristy, and it is meant to be. Someone has to cross a country, enter as a guest, and remain.

When the pilgrim has stood there, the photograph comes, and then the certificate. Until then, the work is the road.