Father Urban, and perhaps Wilf and Brother Harold, too, sensed the rare peace now reigning among them, but Jack rejoiced in it visibly. Still, a moment later, it was Jack who broke the spell. "You know, Urban, I don't feel right about those animals," he said -- not, Father Urban knew, to be critical but just to be saying something. For a moment, they had all been lifted up, and this was Jack's way of letting them lightly back down to earth, where they had to live. "I've always understood that what heat there was at Bethlehem came from the animals. By rights, they should be closer to the Holy Family. Of course, I realize that's not possible in this case."
Father Urban looked over at the tree, at the hamper of food and liquor there. "Let's open one of Billy's bottles," he said.
"A Couple Of Nights Before Christmas," Morte D'Urban, J. F. Powers (1963)
And Judy, of course...
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