John lay on the cot in his cell. He knew they would be calling the Lancasters. It was their duty and he respected that, still John had little desire to see them. They represented the past. True they had brought him into this world, but they had forsaken him as well. He wasn't thinking about how they handed him over to Miss Lila, that had turned out to be a good thing. They had forsaken their duty as parents, letting him make mistake after mistake. They should have stopped him.

It was Miss Lila who had stepped up. In her fierce but loving way, she had shown him God's plan for him. He had been forced to see that every choice he had made in his life had been in defiance in the face of God.

"Do you think God looks at you and likes what he sees?" Miss Lila had said.

She held him before a floor to ceiling mirror. He'd been stripped naked. He stood there humiliated, shame and embarrassment coursing through his body. Anger, helplessness and a dozen other emotions pulsed through his veins. Tears slipped down his cheeks as he was forced to look at the holes in his face and ears. The mottled tattoo like an ugly birthmark on the back of his neck, stood out bruised blue against his pale skin.

"You have vandalized the temple, John."

He tried to cover himself with his hands. Now he cried openly. Why wouldn't she stop saying these things to him?

Miss Lila had left him to face himself in the mirror. When she returned she was holding his belt, the one he had been wearing when he first came. She ran her fingers along the wide strap of leather. "This is for your own good."

Then she had proceeded to whip him. With each blow to his thighs she commanded the Devil to leave his soul.

"God, please stop," he cried.

He crumpled to the ground, his flesh stinging and burning from the whipping. He could think of nothing but the pain that consumed him. Miss Lila stood over him, called for Zac and brother Chris to come help him to his feet. Foolishly, he thought the assault was over. He stood between them as she began to whip him again.

With each strike of the belt he felt the presence of God get stronger and stronger. She let the belt fall to the floor and she sat on the floor, waiting as Zac and Chris let him sink to the ground. "There, there, John. My sweet John, come to me," she said.

John crawled to her, curling up in her arms. And she rocked him. He shook and sobbed with pain still racking his legs. They stayed that way for hours, or at least it seemed like it to him. John thanked her, his words coming out in stuttered sequences.

"I love you, John. I would do anything to save you. The Devil will never have you back."




John instinctively touched the back of his thigh. The skin tingled underneath. He knelt down beside the cot in the cell and bowed his head. "God, please let me help Deputy Dan see the value of his life. Give me the strength to forgive the Lancasters for their weaknesses. Bless Miss Lila and the others. Grant them the ability to continue their work in your name."

Dan was just coming down the hall to check on the boy. He licked something off his fingers then cursed as he noticed a grease spot on his uniform. He rubbed at it with his sticky fingers. "Ah, dammit."

"Put soap and water on it," John said.

"Your mother teach you that?"

"Miss Lila."

Dan pointed to the door of the cell. "You do realize the cell is unlocked. You can come and go as you please."

"Don't have any place to go."

"Your parents will be here soon enough."

There was no look of joy or even anger on his face, instead he watched Dan with the mild curiosity of a child.

"Are you excited to see them?"

John shrugged. "The Lancasters?"

"Yep, that'd be the ones I'm talking about."

He sighed heavily. "I'm prepared to forgive them."

Dan motioned for him to come join him in the break room. "Coffee?"

"Just water."

"That all you drink?"

John nodded. I tasted the sour wine they gave Jesus Christ our Lord."

Skeptically, Dan looked at the boy. "Well, if it's the same stuff they gave him then my guess is its out of date."

To his surprise, John smiled. "It was vinegar, Deputy Dan."

"Ah."

"It made me sick."

Dan poured coffee in to his cup, doctoring it with lots of sugar and powdered creamer. He gulped it and sighed happily. "You don't know what you're missing."

John took a mug out of the drainer and turned the cold tap on.

"We have bottled water, John."

"This is fine."

Dan went back to his desk, John followed.

"Tell me, Deputy Dan, did you ever go to church?"

"I was a regular choir boy. Growing up went to Sunday school, youth group, even Bible study when I was a teenager. By the way, it was in youth group that I got my first kiss. Wendy Hamilton, stunning girl with big blue eyes and long silky blond hair. Mmmm, mmmmm."

"Why'd you stop going?"

"Realized that praying is a lot like talking to an answering machine. Frankly, I think God hit skip every time he heard my voice."

Quickly, John shook his head. "No, he listens. He listens to us all. Maybe you haven't been listening to his answers."

Dan nodded. "Never have been too good at listening. Least that's what the wife says," he added.

"You're married?"

Dan looked at the silver framed picture on his desk. "She's currently on loan to another."

"I, I don't understand."

"We're separated."

"Sorry,"John said. "Did she have an affair?"

"She sure did," Dan said, doing his best to sound nonchalant. He looked away so the boy wouldn't see the hurt in his eyes.

"Thou shall not commit adultery. "

Dan sat his coffee down on the desk and picked up a stack of papers. "Guess she was absent the Sunday they went over that one."