Michael Malone - Weebly

Orchid O'Neal found Miss Dingley at her desk in
the parlor, beside her an elephant's foot wastepaper
basket into which she dropped the paper waste of
forgotten memorabilia. "Telephone, ma'am, it's the
young priest, in a pitiable state."
Father Fields was in a pitiable state. Sin lay on him
like slabs of stone. Before dawn he had awakened to
find himself lying beside the naked body of Walter Saar.
There rushed upon him the remembrance of pleasure.
Pleasure he had dreamed of for years. Feelings too true
to condemn. Doesn't God want us to be happy? he had
kept asking himself as he drove the church Lincoln up
Cromwell Hill Road and hoped no one saw him go past
at 5:00 A.M. Next he woke up horrified in his narrow
bed when he heard the long, nagging honk of a car
horn. It was 8:30! He'd missed morning service! For
the first time.
Dear God, what would the parishioners (though,
thankfully, there were only three at the most) think?
What would the rector, what would God think? Heart
pounding, Jonathan rushed into his clothes, ran across