God's Favorite by Lawrence Wright

occasionally they steal. It’s never much. But when I tried to talk to Teo about it, he became very agitated and refused to discuss the matter. He didn’t admit anything, he simply left. I was hoping he had come to you.”
    â€œHe wouldn’t come to me. He has gone to his friends in the street.”
    â€œIf he’s still in Chorrillo, I am sure I will find him,” said Father Jorge. “But unfortunately he cannot return to the church. He has violated our rules.”
    The glitter above Gloria’s eyes shone like neon in the blacklight. “God must be so angry with me. He makes me suffer by punishing Teo.”
    â€œGod does not punish the children for the sins of the parent,” the priest said.
    â€œThen why does he punish Teo? Why does he give him such a difficult life? This is a good boy, at one time he was a very good boy. But nothing works for him.”
    â€œGod has given him a life. It is not all bad. Many other children have more difficult situations. It is up to Teo to take advantage of what is offered him.”
    Gloria began to cry softly and unself-consciously. “If you want, we can say the rosary,” the priest suggested.
    Gloria got her rosary out of a drawer in the cabinet with the oils. Father Jorge took her hand. As they prayed to Mary, he thought how strange her hand felt in his, as if he were holding a rare and delicate bird.

CHAPTER 5
    T HERE WERE only six limousines in Panama, so when the long black Cadillac snaked up the hillside of Via Porras, a stream of children playing in Omar Torrijos Park ran after it, waving and loudly demanding that the windows be lowered so they could see inside. But the smoky windows stayed shut, and the limousine left the howling children behind.
    Policemen in their coffee-colored uniforms watched respectfully as the limousine slowly passed by. In the manicured yards, oversized purebred dogs stuck their muzzles through the fences, as if they smelled trouble. The limousine turned on Calle Andre into Golf Heights. Here lived the drug barons and the upper ranks of the PDF in tacky stucco mansions set behind tamarind trees and high walls draped with bougainvillea and crowned with shards of colored glass. Immense satellite dishes crowded the rooftops, with their receptive faces raised to the sky. Torrijos had believed that the best way to gain the loyalty of his officers was to make them rich, and it was a policy that Tony grudgingly continued. The more loyalty an officer displayed, the larger the unaccountable, untaxable cash bonus he received in his monthly brown envelope.
    The grounds of Casa Noriega were surrounded by a low stone fence behind a bed of petunias. The house itself was large and U-shaped, also built of stone. One entered through a broad foyer that housed Tony’s extensive collection of porcelain frogs, which were his talisman and spirit guide. The kitchen and large public rooms were on one side, along with a handsome chapel; on the family side, there was an art gallery, a library, a beauty parlor for Felicidad, a dojo where Tony practiced karate, and bedrooms for the Noriegas and their three daughters. Mangoes and hibiscus filled the courtyard between the two wings. The girls’ old playhouse was still there, and a toy windmill, and a reproduction of the Liberty Bell that was given to Tony by some American fundamentalist Christians for promoting democracy in Central America. Crimson-backed tanagers and social flycatchers could usually be glimpsed flitting about in the foliage. More exotic birds occupied the aviary in front of the house, in a grove of orange trees, where Tony kept his prize parrots and macaws. In a cage by himself was his vicious battle-scarred rooster, Fusilero.
    A policeman slumped in a wicker rocker at his post in the guard hut at the front gate, his automatic weapon lying at his feet. He was snoring loudly, unmindful of the distant cries of children or the barking of the hysterical Dalmatian