Heaven Forbid Read Online Free PDF

baby.”
    Passion pressed the END button and immediately called Stan. When the call went to voice mail, she didn’t leave a message.
     
    “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.” Stan squirmed uncomfortably in the tight quarters.
    “How long has it been since your last confession?”
    “I’m not Catholic. I just want to confess my sins before you and the Lord. I saw this church and stopped.”
    “Very well. What is the grievance against God that you’ve committed?”
    “I pushed my wife.”
    “You pushed your wife?”
    “Yes, I was trying to get her out of the car.”
    “How badly was she hurt?”
    “I didn’t hurt her—I mean, not physically. But I’ve never laid a hand on a woman in my life. She just kept pushing my buttons, has been pushing them for months. And that’s not all, Father.”
    “Go on.”
    “I had sex.”
    “I see. With whom, son?”
    “My wife!”
    There was a long pause before the priest continued. “Your wife.”
    Stan nodded, unable to answer for fear of breaking down and crying “like a bitch,” as he’d heard a teenager at church say while among his schoolmates, a phrase he himself would never voice because he didn’t allow profane words to come out his mouth. He also knew that if he opened his mouth, he might confess his other sins, the ones that had haunted him for more than forty years.
    “And having sex with your wife is a sin because…,” the priest prompted.
    “Because I’m supposed to live holy! How am I going to lead a backslidden congregation back to Christ if I’m sweating between my wife’s legs? Father God, forgive me! And give me strength to withstand the wiles of the devil!”
    Father Flannigan took off his glasses and wiped his eyes with a handkerchief. The Catholic population was quite small in Palestine, most confessions boringly routine. Kelly Munson confessed weekly to gambling on the boats in Louisiana. Her son, Patrick, owned up to cheating on his school exams and having lustful thoughts about his school’s head cheerleader, and Jim O’Reilly admitted giving in to the pleasures of alcohol, often making this confession while reeking of liquor. Admitting affairs was fairly common, as was guilt for lying, cheating, and stealing. For the most part, these admissions were perfunctory, confessed again and again. But this man, this stranger’s confession, was different. Father Flannigan perceived a deep hurt in this man’s heart and pain from his past, pain so severe it clouded his judgment to the point that he felt it was wrong to make love to his wife.
    “As a man of the cloth, you know the word of God,” Father Flannigan said. When the stranger on the other side of the partition remained silent, he continued. “And you probably also know that the marriage bed is undefiled, that sex was given to married couples as a way to show their love for each other. It is a totally blessed act in the eyes of God.”
    “It is a necessity to be used for procreation only,” Stan countered. “This was a mistake. I’ve got to get out of here.” Stan ran away from the priest and from the power of that which he hadn’t confessed.
    “Wait, son!”
    Father Flannigan heard the outer door slam. He crossed himself and prayed for the tortured soul of the man who’d entered his chamber.

6
A Secret Place
    Mama Max hummed a lively tune of “Old Time Religion” as she prepared another loaf of banana nut bread. The revival had ended, and to everyone’s profound relief, it had been a huge financial success, partly due to an anonymous donation of twenty thousand dollars that Nettie had confided to Mama came from her son, Gospel Truth’s former pastor, Nate Thicke. Nobody could question that the revival was timely and had led to financial prosperity, as least for the time being. Mama Max knew that only time would tell whether it would lead to spiritual prosperity for the Gospel Truth members and whether such growth was temporary or permanent.
    “Give me that old time