Chapter 2 2

"It's but a calling, my brother in Christ, brother Sam," I say gently.

His smile falters just for a second. "It's Anthony," he blurts. He's just told me his name seconds ago. Whoops. But I just grin and clasp his hands in mine.

"Brother Anthony, I'm sorry, it's just that you remind me of a dear, dear friend of mine I was just visiting before coming to your wonderful town. A truly righteous soul, Sam is. Truly, a man of God and Christ, and a man who's place is saved with a gold ribbon in His Kingdom." My smile widens and I tighten my grasp of his hands. "Just like you, brother Anthony. Forgive me my fumble. It's simply that I'm so moved by your clear path to Saint Peter's pearly, open gates."

Anthony beams at me and shakes my hand fervently with a tear in his eye.

"Bless you, Preacher Gabriel," he blubbers. "Bless you!"

An Oscar. I deserve a fucking Oscar for this shit. This is method acting like Daniel Day-Lewis could never pull off.

I help a middle-aged woman next, and her sister right after. An older man and his grown son are next, followed by a grandmother who insists on bringing her little yappy dog in, too. The motley thing almost takes my fucking hand off before I can pull it away in time. But she makes up for it by paying triple. So, you know, welcome to heaven, or, whatever.

The line keeps moving, the money keeps landing in the box, and poor suckers-I mean customers-keep getting unceremoniously dunked in the tank until I'm pretty much done with them all. It's a blur, and I'm starting to wonder if this is a dry town or not because I'm fresh out of liquor in the Winnebago and I feel like getting blasted tonight, when suddenly, I look up.

I look up, the world stills, my heart does too.

I've spent seven years pretending to listen to folks tell me about seeing God, or hearing angels, or feeling a "presence" or a "touch," or whatever the hell it is they want to tell me. I've remembered practically none of it and believe less than even that. But right there in that field on the edge of Canaan, Georgia, standing up to my waist in sloshing water, I look up, and I see a fucking angel.

It's like the dripping wet, recently dunked crowd parts for her. The sun glows down on her golden blonde hair, and shimmers in these big, wide, innocent blue eyes. The gentle summer breeze rustles her modest white sundress and blows a lock of blonde out of her face. I look at her, and for the first fucking time in my life, I'm not actually sure what to say.

She comes to a stop in front of the baptism tank, and my eyes sweep over her. She looks so fucking innocent, and so pure, and so good in this wholesome way. And I take one look at her, and I want to sully her.

I want to claim that fucking innocence for my very own. I want to put my hands on every fucking inch of that pure, innocent little body and make her truly see God for the first time.

There I am, waist deep in a baptismal tank, a waterproof fucking bible in one hand, organ hymns playing over a shitty speaker, and a crowd of the newly spiritually cleansed surrounding me. And I am rock fucking hard.

"You," I purr, raising a hand before I can stop myself. If this were a sermon of mine, I'd say that it's God moving my hand to do His will.

But I'm not enough of a phony to try that shit on myself. It's not God and a heavenly power moving within me right now. I take one look at this angel, and I want to claim her. I want to shred the pretty little sundress from her pretty little body and spread those pretty little legs for my pretty fucking big cock.

Believe me, it's a power a might south of Heaven moving my hand, if you chose to believe that sort of shit.

I curl two fingers, and I grin as I watch her face turn a crimson red.

"Come here," I growl.

Take one more step, I want to scream. Take one more step and I swear to whatever you hold holy that I will possess your very fucking soul.

And then, she does.

God help her.

Delilah~

"Oh, no-no, the white one, honey!"mama sighs at me with a smile and shakes her head as she pulls the crimson sundress from my hands. "Not that one, Delilah."

I frown. "Mama, I'm not going to wear white-"

"Well of course you are!" she chuckles like I'm making an obvious joke. "It's a baptism, honey. It's reaffirming your love for Jesus! You can't wear-" she blushes a little and lowers her voice. "You can't wear red to a baptism, Delilah," she whispers hoarsely, like even mentioning the red dress in the same sentence as "baptism" is a cardinal sin. But, knowing the way my mama thinks, it very well might be in her head.

"Mama, the white dress is white."

"Exactly. Pure, clean, chaste."

"Yeah, and see-through when it gets wet?"

My mother's face turns redder than the dress she's just pulled away from me, and she looks absolutely scandalized. Lordy, I feel scandalized now that I've said it and now that she's reacted like that.

"Delilah May!" She gasps, bringing a hand to her heart. She looks at me sternly. "Watch yourself, child," she says tersely. "You're close to wicked thoughts, honey."

Wicked thoughts. Right. The concern that my dress will be completely see-through once a stranger dunks me in water is a "wicked thought."

"Mama!" I hiss back, a little scandalized myself. "I just mean... you know! I don't know this preacher, and-"

"He's a preacher, honey," she sighs. "A man of God. A shepherd, come to tend this shepherd-less flock."

"Only temporarily, ma!" Paul, my older brother, crows from the other room.

"Eavesdropping is a sin, Paul!" I yell.

"No it ain't," he chuckles. "And besides, I'm just reminding mama that once my church is up, we'll have no need for traveling preachers like this Gabriel guy."

Mama shakes her head and puts hand to her heart as she raises her eyes heaven-ward. Her lips move a little, and I smile. Mama's piousness might be a little much sometimes, but it's one the character traits that I love about her.

"Well, this Gabriel guy," mama mutters. "Is only going to be preaching the Lord's word for a might longer, and if you don't get going, you're going to miss it!" She turns to me. "White dress, Delilah. Don't be sinful."

I sigh. "Okay, okay."

She smiles. "Thank you, honey. Now get ready!" She pokes her head out of my bedroom door. "Paul! Are you dressed?"

"Nah, mama, I can't go. I promised to bring Mayer Pearson some coffee so we could talk about zoning."

The front door opens loudly, and my father bustles in, grinning. "That's right!" he beams. "That's my son the minister with his very own church!"

Well, not yet, but, that's the plan at least. Paul spent a long time being what mama would call "aimless"-working some odd jobs, hanging around town here in Canaan, and even a year or two living the city life in Savannah-a place both mama and papa agree is a wicked, wicked place. But now with a year of divinity school under his belt, Paul has apparently found his calling, which is to raise the funds to build a church here in church-less, small-town Canaan and be its minister.

"Delilah!" papa calls from the kitchen with a muffled voice.

"Jedediah!" mama hisses back, storming from my room. "You darn well better not be getting into my baking for tonight!"

I can almost hear my father swallowing pie crust from here, and mama can too. She sighs with a smile and turns to point a finger at me. "White dress, right now, honey."

"Okay, okay!"

"You comin' too, dear?" Papa calls.

"I need to finish the prep for supper," she laments. "But if you and Delilah don't hurry-"

"Oh we're hurrying! Delilah!" he bellows in his big belly v

oice. "Truck's leaving in two minutes! Let's go!"