14.

In the week leading up to Joshua's 15th birthday, which was September 7, 1995, there were a number of prodigies & omens that attended the occasion, whether favorable or inauspicious depending upon the interpretation. For it seemed that a certain man in upstate New York had seen a mouse kill a rattlesnake with fervent attacks of tooth and claw, and it became widely understood that this very omen had attended the beginning of the Revolutionary War, which had foretold, at the time, the Colonies' victory over mighty England. And to add to this, it had been reported that an exhibit of Russian icons--portraits of the Passion of Christ done on lacquered wood--on exhibit in a Los Angeles museum--had all at once begun to bead with sweat. No disturbance of air or climate could account for this, since the atmosphere was strictly controlled within the museum; and it was said that no matter how much the sweat was wiped off the images, yet more came and beaded on their surface. And the third thing that took place was that in San Diego a shark was hooked and drawn into a fishing boat, where it was discovered that the hook had pierced the fish's tail rather than its mouth, so that it was reeled in thus backwards, never having taken the bait into its mouth at all. Now, Joshua's birthday was not of course in the national consciousness; and so while all the people supposed these events must be prognostication of some fair or foul news, no one but the Washington family supposed it should mean anything but an auspicious future for Joshua, given that he was crossing the boundary from childhood into adolescence attended by such prodigies as these.