Page 74

By Jack Joseph Smith

be good for you. May I go on, he asked my parents looking directly at them, as if he had known who they were for a thousand years. They said yes in their own amazement, and he continued. You have already seen a saint. Don't doubt, she really is a saint. He was right. The last one alive of the three children of Fatama had come to visit our classroom at Mount Mercy. I was startled. Your nature is to question yourself. Try not to do this, for it will bring you to questioning others, and this is the very thing that makes people afraid of living. He turned to my mother and father once again and asked, has he experienced situations of deceasement very often. Yes, they answered. Con sciously or unconsciously, he questioned further. Both, replyed my mother. Then you are his second parents. Yes, he is adopted, replyed my mother; her Irish nature totally caught up in the man's power. You are very Irish, bless you, he very kindly said to her. Send him to the school, where walks the strong man I spoke off. He has gone beyond death. After the boy, Michael, has been with him awhile, nothing in this world will ever close his heart in fear. He turned back to me saying, hello Michael. Michael is your name, is it not? I nodded my head seemingly understanding the completeness of his realization. Michael the Ark Angel, he said. A fine soul to be calling out the strength of an Irish child. Do you feel happy Michael? You do not need to answer that question. It was only meant to encouage your spirit that is with innocence. Thank you Michael, and his mother and father, he said turning, and walked away.

Original Scan

Page 74

AI Interpretation

GPT

The magician confirms the child's adoption, blesses the Irish mother, names a saint already seen, and tells the parents to send him to the school of the strong man so his heart will not close in fear.

The page turns the performance into family revelation, pulling the parents into the act and giving their private facts a ceremonial public shape. Even through the rough transcript, the strongest force is the promise that the right school and the right priestly figure can harden the child against fear without deadening him.


Claude

The magician asks the parents' permission to go on, tells the boy he has already seen a saint (the last living child of Fatama had visited his Mount Mercy classroom), warns him against questioning himself, learns from the mother that the boy is adopted, urges them to send him to the school of 'the strong man', and names him 'Michael the Ark Angel' before thanking the family and walking away.

The prophecy links the grandfather's earlier Michael blessing to this stranger's words, giving the child's name a mythic weight. The revelation of adoption slips in almost casually, and the magician's promise that nothing 'will ever close his heart in fear' reads as both comfort and burden.