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Marcelino was an easy child to love. His clear young voice splashed like April sunlight on the sober stones, on the serious monks, and it put new life in them. They even changed their names to suit his fancy, and soon were quite unconsciously calling each other Brother Door, Brother Bad. Brother Cookie. Brother Ding-Dong. The monks also learned, as people with children generally do, that new lives bring new sorrows with them. One day. when he was five years old. Marcelino saw a woman for the first time, a country wife. She told him that she had a boy the same age as Marcelino, and that his name was Manuel. Marcelino could not take his eyes off her. At last he said wonderingly. "You're very beautiful." After that Marcelino was some times strangely silent. One day he asked Brother Cookie. "Does everybody have a mother?" "Of course." "Even the Father Superior?" "Yes." "Where is mine?" "In Heaven." "Was she beautiful?" There was a pause; then Brother Cookie looked straight into the boy's eyes and said simply, "She was very beautiful." Marcelino ran out to play.
The brothers began to notice, during the days that followed, that he was playing in a new way—with an invisible companion he called Manuel. And when it came to getting into trouble, two heads seemed to be better than one. Rags on the bell clapper, goats in the chapel, lizards in the vegetable dish—there seemed to be no end to the boy's devilment. One day Brother Cookie determined to put an end to it. "See that staircase," he told Marcelino. "You must never go up it. Never! If The Big Man up there sees you, he'll take you away—forever!" Marcelino was frightened, but he was brave too. and more than anything he was curious. One day he went sneaking up the stairs to see if The Big Man was really there. At the top there was a door. Shaking in his bones, the little boy pushed. The door creaked. Marcelino's heart pounded; his jaw dropped as he stood and stared up at The Big Man. who seemed to be hanging on a wooden cross. There were nails in his hands and feet, and lines of pain in his face. All at once Marcelino was afraid no longer. "You look hungry." he said. "Wait, I'll be back." Marcelino ran down to the kitchen, stole a slice of bread, ran back to the upper room and held up the bread for The Big Man to take.
And he took it. A light awoke in his right hand, and it grew and shone, and the hand seemed to come alive and to move, and it reached out and took the bread from the child.
Marcelino smiled and went downstairs.
The next day he was back. "I've got bread and wine today!" he announced triumphantly. And strangely then, there was a sound like the sound of a great stone being rolled away, and the sound was the voice of The Big Man. "You are not afraid of me?" he asked. Marcelino smiled. "You know who I am?" And Marcelino said simply, "Yes. You are the Lord." "You are a good boy," The Big Man said, "and I thank you. From this day you shall be called Marcelino of the Bread and Wine."