The Saint

“How old are you?”

“Fifteen. But I’ll be sixteen in two weeks.” She felt the need to add that part at the end. “My mom says you’re too young to be a priest.”

“I’m twenty-nine. But I’ll try to age very quickly for her. I’m certain pastoring at a church you attend will age me considerably.”

“I’ll do my best.” She grinned broadly at him as she toyed with the cuffs of her jacket. Once more she fell into an awkward silence. He didn’t seem awkward at all. He seemed to be having the time of his life watching her be weird in front of him.

“Now for the knees. Those are impressive-looking wounds.”

“I fell,” she said. “Shit happens.”

“You don’t seem the clumsy sort. Perhaps I was mistaken.”

She pursed her lips. Her? Clumsy?

“I’m not clumsy. Ever. My gym teacher said I move like a trained dancer.”

“So then where did the injuries to your knees come from?”

“I got in a fight at school.”

“I hope she looks worse than you do.”

“He,” she said with pride. “He looks fine. But he’s still walking funny.”

Søren’s eyes widened slightly.

“You fought with a boy at your school?” He sounded mildly horrified.

“It’s not my fault. There’s this girl at school—Pepper Riley. And if her name wasn’t bad enough, she has huge boobs. She’s scared of her own shadow and won’t fight back. So this guy, Trey, he was being a prick to her on the bus saying all kinds of gross shit about her body. So I told him to shut up. And then he starts saying gross shit to me. He was all, ‘I want your body, Elle.’ So I said he could have my body. Then I gave him my foot. Right in the nuts. It was kind of amazing. When we got off the bus he pushed me so hard I landed on my knees and ripped them open. Whatever. Typical Wednesday at your local Catholic high school. Your tax dollars not at work.”

He continued to stare at her. His eyes had widened even farther.

“Father Stearns? Søren? Whoever you are?” She waved her hand.

“Forgive me. I was utterly riveted by your story. I might have entered a fugue state.”

“Lucky for me, it all happened at the back of the bus and the driver didn’t see it. Otherwise Vice Principal Wells would have my ass. He told me if I got sent to his office one more time I’d be publicly crucified as an example to the rest of the school. I think he was kidding?”

“Did you deserve such a threat?”

“Maybe. I said in class that St. Teresa didn’t have a mystical experience but was, in fact, having an orgasm. It’s not like I didn’t prove it. She said the angel ‘penetrated’ her with his ‘flaming arrow’ right to her ‘entrails’ and that it gave her ‘ecstasy.’” Elle used air quotes for emphasis. “That was not a mystical experience. That was a big O. V.P. Wells didn’t appreciate my theology.”

“I appreciate your theology.”

Eleanor opened her mouth and then closed it again. She had zero words. None. Nothing. She had no idea what to say to that.

“I’m going to go away now,” she said.

“Why?”

“You want me to stay?”

“I do.”

She looked at him askance.

“No one ever wants me to stay. You know, after I start talking.”

“I want you to stay,” he said. “And I’d like you to keep talking.”

“I’m not interrupting your golf game?”

“Golf?”

“All priests play golf, right?”

“Not this priest.”

“What do you play?”

“Other games.”

Something in the way he said the word games made Elle’s toes curl up inside her combat boots.

“Then I should let you get back to your other games.”

“Do one thing for me before I leave.”

“What?”

“Take your hair down.”

This time she didn’t even argue or ask why. She simply pulled the elastic out of her hair, ran her fingers through the messy waves and dropped her hands to her side.

“Give me your right hand.”

He held out his hand again and he took her unburned wrist in his fingers. From her left hand he took her ponytail holder and wrapped it around her wrist.

Slipping two fingers between the band and her wrist, he lifted it high and let it go, snapping the sensitive skin so hard she flinched.

“Fuck … Jesus, that hurt. What did you do that for?”

“Those burns on your wrist will take months to heal completely. There are other ways of inflicting pain on yourself that don’t leave scars. You should learn them.”

Elle looked down at her wrist. Her skin still reverberated with the pain of the vicious sting, but the redness had already started to fade.

“Did you … You just …”