A collection of short stories and journalistic commentaries depicting my simple life
and how I fit in with the modern day universe of our times

CROSS WORDS




An Irish preacher who had made his name in the village in which he lived, would make his rounds every month, walking from house to house, in order to “keep the faith,” so to speak.  He’d do so by  letting the prospective families know about the functions that the church would be having  in the coming weeks, as well as reminding them that every little bit helped when it came to financing the church.

Every month when the preacher made his rounds, he would often venture down a road that he had not walked before, out of sheer curiosity and the hope of finding another parishioner to the church’s falling congregation. One month, he made his way down a road that led straight to a pond which many people fished at during the spring and summer months. The house in question was found up a hill overlooking a pond. 

The preacher made his way up the hill and without any inhibitions at all, he knocked on the door to the house. It was the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday, so he thought someone might be home. A woman came to the door. 

“Can I help you?” she asked politely smiling.

 “Possibly. I’m Pastor Mickerick, Ma’am, I preach down at the old Candleton Church there on Yarder’s Road. You may have heard of us.”

“Sure, sure.”

“Well, Ma’am, if I’m not interrupting anything, I’d like to take a moment of your time, if that is alright, to talk to you about God.”

“God?  Well, now, Pastor Mickerick, I was kind of in the middle of something. I have been working on a story for a few hours now. I’m in the creative mode, if you can understand my meaning.”

“Writing?”

“Yes, Pastor.”

“Wow, I’ve never met a writer before.”

“Yes, well, now you have, Pastor. And, I must really get back to it.”

“Ma’am, I do understand that you have your writing to tend to, but I must ask you, is it more important than gaining the chance of eternal salvation?”

“Well, I suppose it is, as I’m not really that interested in eternal salvation, Pastor, no offense.”

“Well Ma’am, certainly for the sake of your children, I would like to come in and speak with you if for only a moment about our Lord Jesus Christ, if that is alright. I do think that it will be well worth your while.”

Seeing that she is not going to be able to get rid of him without being rude the woman replied, “Well, I suppose that I can take a five minute break and have a glass of orange juice.  Would you like one?”

“Well, certainly Ma’am, I would love one.” the pastor replied smiling as if with a new sense of accomplishment.

Pastor Mickerick follows the woman who came to the door inside her house, and promptly sits down at a small table in the kitchen, after she quickly pushes some of the things that were covering the side where he sat out of the way. 

While getting the juice from the fridge and a couple of glasses from the cupboard, the woman calmly stated “You’ll have to excuse me for not being one of those women that asks a visitor to forgive the mess that they see upon entering their house. I am quite fine with my mess, actually, and Portia is as well.”

“Portia? Is she your daughter? I’m sorry, by the way, I didn’t get your name either.”

The woman turns from pouring the glasses of juice, smiling and sits down across from the preacher after returning the orange juice carton to the fridge. 

“Well, Pastor, that is because I didn’t give it to you yet. But if you must know, my name is Paige, Paige Turner, and Portia is not my daughter, she is my lover.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, according to you churchies, we must be living in all types of sin here.”

“Yes, well, maybe we can change that. I make my rounds every month in order to spread the word of God and to inform the neighbours of Candleton Church as to what is happening as far as functions go, as they can be fun for the family...”

“What did you really come here for, Pastor? Did you come to save my soul? Did you come to tell me all about Jesus Christ, as if I haven’t heard enough bullshit about that character in my short torrid life already? Hmmm? Please get to it, as the bottom of my juice glass is becoming clearer, and when I am done, you know, I really must get back to my writing.” Paige said cutting him off.

“Well, I suppose that I came here originally, as I always do, to spread the word.”

“Pastor, I’m a writer, I come across plenty of words already. And believe me, the ones that you hold have no more or less meaning to me than any of the others.”

“I understand that now. Look, I hardly thought that in meandering up here I would stumble across a woman writer who is living in sin. You illuminate a different world for me, quite honestly.”

“A different world? Hmmm. Pastor, how can I be ‘living in sin,’ as you say, if I don’t actually believe in the concept?”

Taking a big swig of orange juice, Pastor Mickerick turned to the woman. “Can I be frank with you, Paige?”

“Just make it quick.”

“Well, for one, I don’t have any answers for you. The fact is, I don’t believe the concepts myself anymore, these doctrines that I am supposed to bash people over the head with purely because I wear this collar.” Still using his best techniques of reverse psychology, the preacher then tears off his white collar and squashes it in his hand hoping Paige would take the bait and try reconverting him. 

“Really? Well, good for you, Pastor! Look, I would really love to be part of your whole ‘losing of your faith’ thing, but you see, I work here at home, and while Portia is out, I really get my crunch time in, so if you don’t mind...”

The preacher gets the hint, realizing that Paige is not interested in the slightest, and he excuses himself from the house after thanking her for the orange juice. Paige simply locks the door behind him. 

“God, spreading the word was getting harder and harder,” the Pastor thought to himself as he made his way back down the hill. “There’s got to be an easier way to do this.” He then smiled to himself over the irony of God giving a writer a name like Paige Turner. There had to be something to this religion stuff after all.





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Its my own fault really, its all about what I see in the world, and how it all translates for me.

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