The Denim Monks

"Oh my god. I can't believe I've been living down the street from you this entire time."
"When did you move here?"
"Like four months ago."
"That's not too long. This isn't exactly a place where people get to know their neighbors. It's a wonder you even ran into me."
"I know! Just a couple Denim Monks climbing into their minivan. You guys all look the same with your buzz cuts and denim robes."
"Oh, so you've seen us around?"
"You're hard to miss."
"And yet, still anonymous."
"Look at you! Getting all philosophical on me."
"Hah. That's probably a little unexpected."
"From someone I thought was dead a few days ago? Yeah, just a little."
"I am so sorry about that. I was incredibly, hopelessly lost. I'm not proud of that time in my life."
"It's just good to know my big brother's alive. Why didn't you call?"
"I wish I could say I tried, but I haven't had the heart. I had to make a clean break from that place in order to pick myself up again. The brothers get after me to do it occasionally."
"Does anyone know where you are?"
"You do."
"I would have thought part of your monk training would involve doing some sort of penance. Apologizing to the people you've hurt."
"Penance can take many forms. The work we do is penance. My daily prayers are penance. Everything I do now is to make up for what I've done."
"You understand why I have a hard time believing that?"
"Yes."
"I have never known you to believe in any sort of god. Even when you were going to Baptist Sunday school you would get in trouble for being too skeptical. Catholicism was the biggest joke of them all to you, and here you are saying five Hail Marys every day in front of that Madonna between your two little houses."
"People change."
"Not you. Not when it comes to god."
"My sister knows me too well."
"You haven't changed a bit! You're just taking advantage of their good nature so you can hide from the life you left behind. People tend to have very long memories. You wouldn't be safe within a hundred miles of home until everyone, their parents, and their children died, and you know that."
"Do you know what the father told me when I was starting there? He told me more people come to the service of god through desperation than devotion. That his work is too important to care if the hands doing it believe. These are good people doing good work. Not one of them questions me. The prayer, the ceremony, it's like meditation for me. All this ritual helps me find my center. I think they know that."