Had his eyes and ears been playing with him? Father Romy was perplexed. He was sure that there was someone in the confessional box. He was sure that he heard a voice saying that he should go and sin no more. True, the voice did not sound at all like that of the other priest in the parish. Nor did it sound like that of any other priest he knew who would visit the parish to hear confessions.
Father Romy went back to the pew and knelt down. He buried his face in his hands. Was he losing his mind? Was he starting to hear voices? There were those visions that he couldn't explain, visions of him dying. Snippets of conversations, debates, arguments. Some guy in white. He wondered if he should return to the psychiatrist that his bishop had referred him to. But, no, he had already been pronounced perfectly sane, though suffering from total amnesia. Maybe he did imagine the confessional box to be occupied. Maybe he did imagine the light being on and going off. Maybe he felt so guilty about thinking about a woman that he convinced himself that he was confessing to a confessor.
Father Romy looked up at the statues that adorned the altar. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." He remembered the verse from chapter 20 of Exodus. He knew that, as a Catholic, he was not bound by that commandment. Jesus had said explicitly that the old commandments no longer held, that there were now only two commandments. Love God and love your neighbor. And what was that about love? Could he, a Roman Catholic priest with a vow of celibacy, love a woman? What was he thinking about? He barely knew this principal. He couldn't possibly already like her. In fact, he positively disliked her, her haughtiness, her self-importance. But there was her sexy body.
Father Romy smiled at what one of the young men in his parish had told him just a few days before, apparently quoting something from social media. "Father,' the young man had asked, rhetorically, "Is it true that the best way to fight temptation is to give in to it?
Father Romy had taken offense at that remark. Of course, he knew that it was rhetorical, or even a joke. The young man was definitely merely teasing. But he scolded the young man and told him not to quote such nonsense.
Maybe, just maybe, Father Romy said to himself now, the advice is good. The best way to face this temptation is to face it head on, not to give in to it but not to turn away.
He dialed the mobile phone number on the business card that Julie had left with him.
A man answered. "Yes. Who is this?"
Father Romy stuttered in surprise, "May I speak with Julie, please?"
The man said, "Who is this? Why are you calling?"
Father Romy said, "I'm Father Romy. I need to talk to her about her school."
The voice on the other end said, "Oh, you're a priest. Okay, Father, you may talk to her. She's just, well, occupied." Father Romy heard the man whispering, "It's a priest."
Julie got on the phone. "I'm sorry, Father, this is a bad time. Can I call you in a couple of hours?"
"Sure, Miss," said Father Romy. "Thank you. Goodbye." He should have said, "God bless," he told himself after he had hung up.
Julie turned to Frankie. "You shouldn't have answered my phone."
"Well, you couldn't have answered it, since you're on your knees and I'm standing up and I'm inside your mouth. I'm sorry. I thought you had another lover."
"What?" said Julie, standing up. "How dare you think I have another lover?"
Frankie grabbed her ass and pulled her towards him. "You're right. My Thomas is more than enough for your Jane."
Back in the rectory, Father Romy opened his Bible to the eighth chapter of John and read, "He who is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." He did not want to judge, that he may not be judged, but it still rankled that a man answered Julie's mobile phone. A mobile phone was as private to a person as the person's own body.
She had told him that her husband was dead. Who, then, was this man?
YOU ARE READING
Love After Heaven
RomanceA murder victim gets a chance to return to earth to meet his wife and her lover. He still loves his wife, despite her complicity in his murder. But he returns to earth not as himself but as a priest! How can he and his wife come together again? What...
