Father Briar and The Angel (10 page)

“
All rise, for the
national anthem,” called the public address announcer over a
crackling loudspeaker.

This, too, had strong
religious connotations. God and Country were still inexorably
linked; this was yet another lingering after-effect of the war.
Eisenhower’s White House was popular and, riding a wave of
prosperity, Americans felt as though they’d been divinely
blessed.

“…
and the home, of the
braaaaaave.” Cedric always drew out the last syllable of the song,
even if no one else around him was. It was a bit of cheek from an
old sailor, who felt he’d earned the right by dint of his service.
“Heck,” he thought, “even when we were on the boat, taking fire
from Japanese fighters and kamikaze pilots, we weren’t as deadly
serious about Old Glory as these people seem to be.”

The Brannaska Bunyons
fought hard, too, but they were soon under attack by the potent
Thief River Falls offense, which featured a right wing that would
go on to a fifteen year career in the National Hockey League. He
scored twice in the first six minutes and the Bunyons’ side of the
bleachers was very, very quiet.

Cedric thought about the
families of the players as they skated. He thought about their
lives, their tragedies, their traumas, and their triumphs. Winger
Ryan Platz lost his father to hypothermia when he got lost on a
hunting trip. Hunting had claimed Jeremy Driver’s father, too;
well, not hunting so much as the combination of whiskey and
shotguns.

Kent “Whitey” White
(Brannaskans were never any good with nicknames) lost his
grandfather when he went out to milk the cows in a blizzard and the
rope he had tied to guide him to the barn had blown free. It was
flying loose in the wind, like a child’s kite. Poor Whitey Senior
walked out to the middle of nowhere, holding a rope that promised
false truth.

Whenever Cedric thought of
this story, he shuddered, and in spite of his best efforts and
hardest prayers, he wondered if his belief in God wasn’t the same
thing as that rope. He didn’t think faith worked like that, but
still he was a man of intelligence and experience, so occasionally
he had to question things, question everything.

His grieving parishioners
would approach him at wakes and ask, “why does God take innocent
people? Why does he take good people?” Sometimes Father Briar
wanted to tell them, “God didn’t take your husband, that blizzard
did.”

But what sort of answer
was that for the faithful?

“
Darn it,” Cedric said,
coming out of his meditation as Thief River Falls scored
again.

She giggled a little bit to
herself. Had they not been in public, around others from church, he
might have used the harder curse word there. Julianna loved having
this little bit of intimate knowledge about him.

“
They will come back here
right quick, you betcha,” Ty said. “Our squad is too plucky to stay
down long.”

Then Thief River scored
again, “a slapper right through the five hole,” Ty
lamented.

Cedric saw Julianna’s
shocked face and instead of laughing out loud, decided to translate
that obtuse bit of sports jargon so she didn’t feel like even more
of an outsider.

“
He said that the player
hit the puck really hard with a ‘slap shot’ and it went through our
goalie’s legs and into the net.”

“
Well thanks!” she said,
much cheerier than those around her. The Brannaska faithful were
taking the trouncing hard.

It was about to get worse.
That talented winger scored again, “a gorgeous backhander from
right outside the faceoff circle,” the despondent taxidermist
wailed.

The rout continued from
there. Trigger Olsen got a goal, much to his father’s delight, but
the Bunyons lost 8-1.

The dejected Brannaska fans
filed out of the rink. Even through the thick padding of his coat,
Julianna could see that his shoulders were slumping.

“
I know how I can cheer
you up,” she told him, unbuttoning the top of her
blouse.

“
Here in the car?” he
asked mouth agape.

“
Why not? I read about it
in a romance novel I bought at Mimsie’s Five and Dime.”

“
Jewels,” he said, using
her nickname with a rare note of disapproval, “don’t be filling
your mind with that trash. Romance novels are pithy distractions
written by alcoholics not talented enough to make a living writing
screenplays but too pretentious to write pornography.”

She laughed and he was
secretly proud. So few people got his humor.

“
Really?” she questioned,
“most of the writers that I’ve known have been more fond of that
reefer.”

“
Sometimes I miss a city.
Brannaska is nice and all, but I miss jazz music and all of the
funny smells that come with it.”

“
You never cease to
surprise me,” she said, “I’d never pegged you as a jazz
guy.”

“
Oh, I’m not. And I’ve
never been to a concert or non-religious performance in my life,
aside from the USO shows during the war. But I like that it exists
and we could go, if we wanted.”

“
Yes, there isn’t jazz or
reefer in Brannaska,” she agreed, “so how about a quickie in the
car?”

“
It’s not been very long
since I’ve started having sex. I think sex in the car might be a
big ask,” he said, trying not to stammer. He quickly estimated the
dimensions of the interior of the car. “It is possible,
physically,” he conceded.

“
Of course it’s possible.
You just put your big fat penis in my cute little
vagina.”

This broke him up. She was
the funniest and most fun creature he’d ever encountered. She was
also beautiful, and, by her own admission, horny. So he turned his
attention away from her humor to the situation at hand.

“
We can’t stop at any of
the motels on the way home. The dejected Bunyon faithful fans will
be strung out from here back to Brannaska. We’ll be recognized for
sure.”

He drove slowly through
town, concentrating. Then there was a bounce in the seat next to
him and Julianna squealed, “how about down there!”

There was a big depression
in the ground next to a brick elementary school and the locals had
flooded it and turned it into a hockey rink. The icy playground was
still lit and there was sweet-smelling wood smoke coming from the
chimney of the little building known as the warming
house.

“
Looks cozy,” he said,
“let’s hope there is nobody in there!”

Thankfully for his by now
rather urgent erection, the warming house was both warm and empty.
He unlocked the trunk of his car and brought a blanket out of the
winter survival kit so they’d have somewhere soft and comfortable
to lie.

Cedric put her down gently
and lifted up her sweater. He kissed her nipples with great
tenderness and care. “Harder,” she commanded. “Take them deeper
into your mouth.”

Ever the obedient lover, he
obliged. This was very unusual. They’d skipped foreplay entirely,
no kissing, no necking, no touching. Just fast, needy stripping and
then trading favor after favor until they were on the edge
insanity.

“
I am going to have to put
it in you soon,” he gasped.

“
Yes, yes, yes you are,”
she said.

“
I wish I could see your
body.”

“
Then go ahead and turn
the lights on.”

This was a bridge too far,
too soon.

“
Rather, I’m happy like
this.”

She laughed. “I’d be
happier if you put your cock in me. It is so hot against my tummy
and that heat could be better used elsewhere.”

“
Soon enough. I need more
of these immaculate breasts first,” he said.

“
You could do both,” she
begged.

“
I am,” he joked, holding
each one of her tits in his hands.

“
You are a square,
man.”

He reminded himself to ask
about that new bit of slang later. But later. Now? Now was the time
for sex.

Cedric slid into her with
such precision, power, and grace that she thought she might climax
right then and there. Much to her great delight, she managed to
hold off, and the pace of his rhythm was set. Then it increased.
Then it got faster still and she had to hold on for dear and
blessed life.
Then, at once, he lost his erection. He blushed.

“
What is wrong, my dearest
love,” she panted.

“
I, um, I have to
urinate,” Father Briar confessed, quiet and under his breath, half
hoping that she wouldn’t hear.

But she did and she
laughed. Laughed long and long, and this relieved his tension and
he went to relieve his bladder.

“
What a wonderful thing it
is, making love,” he thought, looking down at his penis as if
discovering it for the first time.

In his modesty, he’d
dressed between bed and the bathroom.

Cedric walked back to the
makeshift bed and lay down next to her, now slowly disrobing again
as he did. Julianna took a deep breath, since the last time she’d
made love; she’d been looking forward to this. She was still almost
pure and maintained some nervous energy and sexual nervousness
about this moment, her thighs quivered and her nipples got taut and
nubby. Her lover took her face into his hands, softly caressing her
cheeks before he kissed her. Her cheekbones were high, defined, and
elegant, her lips still carrying lipstick traces, and her eyelids
heavy but the eyes be

“
I love this, and I love
you,” Julianna said, a trace of the Pacific Northwestern accent
from her growing up still audible around the soft corners of her
voice, “but it’s hard.” Julianna wondered if what was coming next
would be hard, too, and then she giggled at her own naughtiness,
deflating the potential tension of the moment and putting them both
at ease.

She, too, had dressed while
he was in the bathroom. It was out of modesty, pure and simply, but
now she was glad she had. It prolonged the moment. Cedric
unbuttoned the top of her nightgown, fumbling a bit with the
opposite-side arrangement. He wondered for a moment if she wore her
bra to bed and worried that he’d fumble with that, too. Father
Briar was still quite the novice at lovemaking and all the layers
of clothing removal in necessitated. Julianna helped him out,
bringing it down around her shoulders and exposing the top of her
naked chest.

“
You have beautiful
breasts,” he blurted, like an over excited kid. Which, in many
ways, he was. Her breathing got more and more rapid, shallower and
shallower, as she struggled to maintain her composure.

She knew that soon, even
more of her would be exposed and she lusted for it, wanting to
grind herself against him in delirious anticipation, but still, she
maintained her control. But when he started kissing her neck, slow
at first then more pressing, hungrier, harder, she thought she
might lose it.

“
Oh how I’m trying!” she
bragged to herself, “and how good the release will feel.” She was
free of Catholic guilt, she was free of nagging worries about the
sinfulness of her love affair, and she was now free of her
nightgown!”

“
Good job Cedric,” she
said with a smile, now wearing nothing but her birthday
suit.

She said something that
sounded like, “a fish dish a wish-pish full frontal Monday
mental-ish,” slurred together as all one word. Her body, he
realized, had the amazing power to make him lose command of the
English language. And without the word, what was he? Nothing. All
he had was the word, and the word was good.

“
Surely I am the most
amoral priest this snowbound state has ever seen,” he thought, not
out of shame, but out of pride, pure and horny pride.

“
What wild magic does she
possess?” he thought, smiling down upon her before kissing her neck
yet again. He didn’t want her to know that he thought she possessed
some sort of supernatural powers. Cedric was willing to indulge a
little Halloween fantasy every now and then.

“
I am lying in bed with my
parish priest and the man who I love more than any other,” she
thought, and like Father Briar, this wasn’t out of shame but great
pride.

“
Are you
impressed?”

“
I could not be more
impressed. I’m at the edge of bliss. Paradise itself couldn’t be
more appealing.”

This excited her and her
nipples were happy and aching and she wiggled her breasts in his
face, teasing and tickling his chin as they swung. He took ruby
nipples in his nimble teeth, treating them like the precious jewels
they were. She cried out, loud enough that she was convinced that
if there was anybody in the room next door, they would’ve
heard.

Now more than ever she
wanted to experience all the earthly pleasures a man could give
her. She felt as though she was now no longer tethered to the
planet and might fly free to Heaven.

Cedric laced his fingers
through her shining hair, pushing her down, down, down. They rolled
over and over and she wound up on top, smiling like she’d just won
the wrestling championship of the world.