Globusz^® Publishing 

As of late, Andre Vano and Victor Zurab would leave the cathedral in the early morning darkness and drive back to Tbilisi where they would park the van in the warehouse before they wearily walked home to their apartments. They barely had enough time to shower and eat breakfast before Vano had to walk the three blocks to the television store and Zurab had to catch the bus that took him right back to the cathedral. The personable Zurab sat near the bus driver and talked him into waking him up when he got to his stop. The fifteen-minute catnap provided some relief for Zurab as he spent the morning going through his usual janitorial tasks like cleaning the restrooms, replacing candles, and dusting the altars and displays.

He was looking forward to lunchtime when he could take another nap to help him get through the afternoon. He was working his way down the left side aisle of the Cathedral, his mop swabbing the floor more energetically than usual. He thought about the meeting with Tafar last night, and how close they were to finding the cloak. Sometimes all he could think about was ridding him self of the damn mop and pail and maybe that time was close at hand. With each marble tile that he swabbed, he would think of some new luxury item that he would spend his newfound wealth on.

Suddenly he felt someone pat him on the back jarring him out of his daydream. He turned around and Andre Vano was standing there with a smile on his face.

“I asked the fat bastard for the afternoon off and I hopped on the bus to come out here and bring you a sandwich,” Vano said.

“What the hell! I must be hallucinating, you never gave me anything in your life, getting close to the cloak must be changing you for the better.”

“Yes it has, you ungrateful bastard,” Vano said, “I also wanted to see how things look out here in the day time.”

Vano then started walking over to the right side of the church toward the tenth pew.

“Hey, get back here you idiot,” Zurab said as sternly and quietly as he could. He grabbed Vano by the collar and said, “Bishop Dimitri is right over there, you fool.”

Vano saw the bishop kneeling in front of the Shrine of St Nino in the front vestibule of the cathedral.

“Damn, I’d better get out of here, remember, I’ll be over to pick you up at nine-thirty, this could be the night we get rich.”

“And we won’t have to work another Saturday in our lives,” Zurab said as Vano silently slipped out the side door, quietly closing the door so the bishop didn’t notice him.

“Zurab went back to mopping and daydreaming and a few minutes later he got another pat on his back. He turned around ready to scream at Vano, when he saw the Bishop standing right in front of him.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to startle you, Victor, but I wanted to ask you to clean the glass around St. Nino’s Shrine.”

“ I will, Bishop Dimitri, I know that the children like to put their hands all over it.”

“Thank you, keep up the good work.

“Thank you, Bishop, I’ll do it now so I don’t forget.”

Zurab walked out into the vestibule and pulled a bottle of window cleaner out of his back pocket, sprayed some on cleaner on the glass display, and started wiping it off with a rag. He conveniently knelt down on the kneeler as he wiped the lower section of glass. As he was cleaning and looking at the display that he started to recall the stories of St. Nino that his grandmother used to tell him.

She was one of the first Saints to bring Christianity to Georgia and was actually a relative of St. George, who some say the country was named after. Paradoxically, like the greedy Tafar, she also came to Georgia looking for the cloak of Christ, and an angel of God told her that it was buried under a cedar tree and showed her where.

Because of St. Nino’s goodness and the miracles that she was known to perform, she was in good favor with the emperor who she asked to build a church over the spot where the coat was buried.

A chill ran down Zurab’s spine as he turned around and looked down the main aisle toward the tenth pew, and knew that he was very close to that location and would soon see the coat for himself.

The cedar tree under which the cloak was buried was going to be used as a foundation pillar for the main dome of the church. They used many workers and machines to lift and hold the cedar pillar in place, but they couldn’t lift it. One night during the construction, St. Nino prayed incessantly and the next morning the cedar pillar was literally standing upright on its own, waiting for the workers to complete the building around it.

The cedar pillar was called the ‘Life Creating Pillar’, and Victor Zurab could almost smell the cedar in the air.

He stood up and looked at the cross above the shrine and the picture of St. Nino, and he suddenly felt guilty about being involved in the villainous scheme to steal the cloak. Then he saw his reflection in the glass and thought, “look at me, wearing this old beat up uniform and working like a dog, what do I have to show for my life? Making just enough money to survive, just like my father did. But back in the old days it was different, a man could live and eat well on a modest salary. Today, however, there are so many different luxuries and conveniences within one’s reach if only you had the money to afford them.

“I deserve these things, don’t I? If not me, then who? Who?” Zurab said to his reflection in the glass before he looked around the cathedral startled and embarrassed that he actually said the words out loud, and fortunately, no one was there to hear him. He looked at the picture of St. Nino and sprayed and wiped the glass one last time and said, “Now it’s my turn.”

As Zurab finished cleaning the glass, he quickly turned around when he heard some footsteps coming from the left side entrance of the church. He heard what he thought was the sound of the cleated boots of Ella Mamedov. He fearfully went over and checked outside the door to see who it was, but no one was there.

There was something about that quiet woman, as beautiful as she was, there was a sneaky viciousness about her that Zurab found quite unsettling. In contrast, Tafar scared the absolute hell out of him, but he was blatantly up front with you.

Zurab enjoyed the few minutes of the fresh spring air before he closed the door and went back to his cleaning.