This was going to be the most difficult day of my working life, I was about to preach a sermon that would either bring my flock onside or alienate them forever. I, Matthew Ridgway, have been the Minister of a church in a small country town for some three years. The time has been something like the Curate's egg; good in parts. I have been accepted into this...
Author's note: This is, in all its seven parts and their many chapters, one very, very long story. If long stories bother you, I suggest you read something else. No part of this story is written so as to stand on its own. I strongly suggest that you start with the beginning of Part 1 and read sequentially—giving up at any point you choose, of course....
Pt. V: The Good Doctor Brett Sanderson had anticipated some difficulty in persuading Caitlin Cornplanter, Ph.D., to accompany him to Las Vegas and meet with Jack Davis. He couldn't have been more wrong about the good doctor's enthusiasm for the endeavor. "First, Brett, call me Caitlin," she interrupted when they spoke for the first time on the phone. "Sec...
It was five forty-five when they pulled into one of those squat, L-shaped sleep-overs off Route 32, a few miles out of the heart of town. There were only two other cars there and they made the man's tired old Lincoln look decent by comparison: an ancient pick-up that was half covered in dirt, and a fairly new Japanese econobox with a dummy tire on the back a...
You will no doubt notice that certain words are intentionally left in lower case. It's for the same reason that Hannibal Lecter ate his victims; to show my contempt for them.* * Oh, religion. What a tangled web if there ever was one. I was born in the heart of the old South, where hellfire and brimstone preachers were as common as 57 T-birds and Sunday chi...
Pt. I: The Locusts Like locusts, they came swarming out of the Badwater Basin of Death Valley. They rode smoking Harleys in groups of ten. Each day another group of ten wove their way through each other's dust clouds on the road from the abyss to their assignations. The names of the leaders of the locusts, Samazaz, Araklba, Rameel, Kobablel, Tamlel, Ramel,...
Part 3 Saturday Saturday morning dawned grey and cloudy. Though I was tempted to sleep in, there was a lot to get done today. No need for a shower, though; no doubt I would be up to my neck in the lake later on. Craig and Ben were already at work in the kitchen, cooking up breakfast. Eggs, sausages, bacon, all of it smelling great. Claire and Eliza were a...
All of the characters in this work of fiction are over the age of 21. This series can be read on its own. However, Frank Melar from The Happiest Day of Her Life appears in this chapter. This chapter contains depictions of heterosexual sex. In the previous chapter, Dani Van Cleef, a newly ordained Presbyterian pastor, agreed to fly out to the home of Frank...
Chapter 7 Trial Day 5 Your ideology is not how you can use your church to serve God, but how you can use God to serve your church. Janine emerged from the bedroom, bleary eyed and still half asleep to be greeted by freshly brewed coffee, toast and a choice of cereals. "Hmmm, this is nice. Thank you for last night, I just needed company, I'd almost forgott...
I was off work for a week. Compulsory workers compensation leave my boss and the unions called it. There'd been a near accident at work with me the near victim. Bloody fast reflexes got me out of the way in time and an equally fast tongue let that damned apprentice know what I thought of his chances of completing his apprenticeship in the next fifty years....