Two Weeks in Paradise by A.D. Ellis

Author:A.D. Ellis [Ellis, A.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781961306004
Publisher: A.D. Ellis Publishing
Published: 2023-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

NINE

Reggie

“I’m old,” Ben said the next night as we sat on our patio for what was quickly becoming our nightly drinks by the fire. We’d gone for a sunrise beach walk, taken a snorkeling tour of the island’s reef, eaten a glorious lunch, and ended the day with a sunset beach walk and a nap before making our way to the patio. Our days together had quickly become an important piece of who I was and I had no idea how I’d go back to being Reggie without Ben in my life. I didn’t want to and I wasn’t sure I could. But I had no clue how to say that to Ben without freaking him out.

“I don’t get how to play this game,” Ben continued. His eyes were glassy, but his words were clear and strong, despite being laced with laughter. “I can’t remember whether to drink if I have done it or haven’t done it.”

We dissolved into snorts of laughter. “We can just play the old person version,” I offered. “We just drink when we want to and answer the questions.”

From the neighboring party, the speaker crackled with, “Never have I ever been to church.”

Ben’s eyes locked with mine and he smirked. Raising his hand like a kid in school, he said, “Grew up in a cult called a church. Definitely been to church. Almost daily until I married Lariah. Wasn’t until I started taking steps to distance myself and Megan from Lariah, started learning the zillion and one things I didn’t know, that I realized not everyone goes to church, not every believes in God.”

I shrugged. “I’ve been to two church services in my life—outside of a couple funeral services held in churches—we didn’t attend church growing up.” I chuckled without humor. “Pretty sure my mom was too busy being focused on herself to devote any time to church.” Watching Ben, I pressed the conversation. “What’s it like?”

“Church?” he asked. “Eh, I can’t really speak on it. I’m sure there are a lot of different ones. Probably some really good ones. I just have a lot of bad memories of the one I knew.” He stared off into the warm night. “Don’t get me wrong. I do believe in a higher being, probably even God.” With a deep breath blown out slowly, he continued, “What I don’t believe in, now that I’ve had enough years to reprogram my brain and educate myself, is a bunch of men taking control and wielding power by terrifying people into following them. Telling people they’ll burn in the fiery pits of hell if they don’t devote their life to the church just isn’t something I can get behind. It’s power-hungry men wanting control and money and prestige. They get off on people looking up to them. They thrive on scaring people, hurting them, breaking them, manipulating them—all in the name of God.” Ben shook his head. “Like I said, I’m sure there are some wonderful churches out there, but my parents’ church ruined me for any kind of organized religion.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.