Virgin - Darcy Vebber

He tore the sheet of paper in half and then in half again. Even though he was angry, he could not help being precise, lining up the torn squares and rectangles, edge to edge. When he could no longer tear the paper, the stack of pieces too thick and small, he dropped them, neatly, into the wastebasket next to the bed and brushed his fingertips against each other, as if the paper had been sticky. And disgusting. He looked disgusted.

Sam was sitting in a molded plastic chair, his back to the wall where the nurses whiteboard announced their names and the date. Someone had drawn a smiley face.

Mary was asleep or at least she had her eyes closed.

The reverend had found the letter with the things Mary left behind at the house. She had written to everyone they knew for help and some letters just didn't get sent. The reverend kept an eye on everything, even stamps. This particular letter was to her sister but they were all the same, essentially. They detailed the man's insistence that Mary have her baby in the house even though the nurses she'd seen in Vacaville said she was so young it wasn't safe. In this one, Mary also said she was afraid of Sam, afraid he would give in. My husband is an orphan, she had written, and I think he is always looking for a father.

Sam had been watching the Reverend as he read the letter but when he came to that, Sam lowered his head and pressed his big hands into the ridge above his eyebrows. He wanted to correct the record -- he was not an orphan -- but he stayed silent. He had learned was that there was no point in arguing with the Reverend any more. There was no charming him, no calling on his love even though he had promised both of them that he would always love them.

He was just like anybody's angry parent, blustery and red faced and only pretending to be in control. Sam could see that at the same time as he could see what he had seen before, a man infused with love and intelligence, a guide, a teacher. It was like the devil had a hold of the Reverend, like the snake was in him and him at the same time. That was what the nam had taught. The devil is in all of us. He said it gently, as if it was good news: you've been wondering where evil comes from? It comes from you.

The Reverend crossed from the foot of Mary's bed to where Sam sat and put his hand gently on the back of Sam's bowed head. "Come back home with us," he said. "Leave her and come back with us."

Sam felt a chill.