1520 Main

4

That made Marina's spine tingle. Dot's feelings were right one hundred percent of the time. When she had them, which wasn't very often.

She and Dot spent the rest of the day not speaking to each other, or at least, not passing notes in class. They walked from school to the bus stop to wait for the bus that would take them downtown. They rode to 12th and Main in stiff silence until they got to their stop. As they walked to Kresge's, Dot muttered, "I could be wrong."

"What does Bishop think?" Marina asked reluctantly. Dot's father wasn't half as strict as Marina's, but with Bishop Albright, there were lines one did not cross.

"I didn't say anything. I didn't want you to get in trouble."

Marina's parents and Dot's parents had never met. They didn't speak to each other. Dot's father would if asked, but Marina's father absolutely would not stand in the presence of a Satan-worshipping polygamist. Never mind Bishop only had one wife and had never met anybody who had more than that. Marina knew they didn't worship Satan at all. Or at least, when she was around, they didn't. Maybe Satan-worshipping families could be nice. She didn't know.

That didn't mean Bishop wouldn't lecture Marina as if she were his daughter if he thought she was out of line. He never had, but Dot's brother's friends got yelled at for stupid things they did and Marina didn't want to get in trouble with Bishop any more than she wanted to get in trouble with her father.

"That man seems to like you," Dot said, still muttering, as they entered Kresge's and found their booth. "I don't ... You know, in case, I'm wrong. Maybe ... I wouldn't have to ... I mean, when we went ... "

"Maybe you wouldn't have to find me a date?" Marina asked softly.

"Yeah," Dot admitted reluctantly. "I'd ... like that. If you had your own somebody and weren't miserable."

"I have fun," Marina protested.

"Not enough. Speaking of that," she said, suddenly back to her perky self, "did your parents say yes to Friday night?"

"He said he'd pray on it." Dot deflated immediately. "Are you coming to church with me tonight?"

"I always do."

"So ... could you ... ?"

"No," she said firmly. "I am not getting saved. I'm not getting baptized. I'm not joining your church. Marina, I just come with you to be nice. That's all. I don't like your god."

Marina blinked and looked at her. "My God?" she asked, confused. "He's yours too. He's everybody's God. He's just ... God."

"Then I don't like him," she said firmly.

Marina's spine started tingling once again. Nobody should blaspheme God that way.

"You think, if I don't get saved, that I'm going to burn in a lake of fire, right?"

Marina nodded sadly. "Yeah."

"But what about the people in Africa? They don't know anything about Jesus. Maybe they'd want to get saved, but don't have the chance. He's gonna send them to a burning lake of fire too?"

"Um ... " To tell the truth, that had always bothered Marina.

"But you say he loves everyone. Well, if he loved everyone, then he'd give those people a chance. So the only thing I can think is that he doesn't love everyone. The God I learn about on Sundays doesn't do that to people."

Marina didn't say anything because, while she didn't know anything about Dot's doctrine, she couldn't refute her own. She'd asked her father the same thing and he'd droned on about something she really didn't understand, then preached it that Sunday in a way that confused her even more.