By That Sin Fell the Angels by Fessenden Jamie

Author:Fessenden, Jamie [Fessenden, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Publisher: Itineris Press
Published: 2012-08-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Sunday Afternoon

Isaac

ISAAC stayed behind in the church after everyone had left. Downstairs, Shirley was opening her salon, and soon the sound of gossip would break the silence and the entire building would smell of whatever wretched chemicals women put in their hair. But for a few minutes, the sanctuary was quiet and peaceful.

He walked to the back of the room, where his podium faced the rows of metal folding chairs, and his gaze dropped to the floor in between. The blood was gone. Except for the fact that the floor seemed slightly brighter there, slightly newer after the refinishing job, there was no way to tell anything had been there.

Isaac realized his hands were shaking, and he clasped them together as if in prayer. Force of habit caused him to glance up at the faded painting of Christ on the back wall. He’d painted it himself, long ago, and it wasn’t half-bad, if he said so himself. He’d thought about being an artist at one time, years before he’d married. But few things were more incongruous than Isaac Thompson in a college art class. In addition to being appalled by the rabid liberal politics that permeated the department, he’d been massively uncomfortable around the naked young men and women who posed for his classes. One of the young men had even grown erect while posing, while the professor and the other students pretended nothing was amiss. Isaac had become so embarrassed he’d had to leave class.

He didn’t feel that he was a prude. He knew that people were sexual by nature. The Lord had created them to be. But it was something to be kept private between a husband and wife, not paraded around for the world to see.

Daniel’s deliberate desecration of the church, in so blatantly sexual a manner, tormented Isaac. Wasn’t it bad enough that he’d lost his son? Every morning, he woke to the oppressive silence of a house without Daniel, without Beth, and he longed to return to the forgetfulness of sleep. But even sleep provided little refuge. He woke every couple of hours, tormented by dreams of Daniel’s naked, blood-spattered body. Why had the boy felt the need to mock everything he’d been taught about honoring the Lord?

Isaac felt compelled to kneel on the floor, looking up at that image of Christ. He’d thought, at the time he painted it, that the face of the Lord looked compassionate. But somehow over the years, perhaps from the paint aging and fading, it had somehow grown colder, until the face looking down upon him now seemed severe and disapproving. You have failed Me, the figure seemed to be saying, and you have failed your wife and child. Yet when Isaac asked Him, How? What could I have done differently? the figure was silent.

The reverend leaned forward and placed his hands flat on the wooden floor, marveling at the fact that it felt cool. Somehow he’d expected it to be warm.

“Lord,” he said, under his breath, “I know it is not for me to question Your divine plan.

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.