[David and Nina are having a philosophical discussion next to a creek. David is speaking first:]
“When you meet god, what will you say?”
“Pfff... I'll kick it in the nuts.”
“Him. Not 'it'.” David wrenched a flat stone out of the sand. “If you're kicking a god in the nuts, it's a 'him'.” He leaned closer, trying not to smile. “Do I need to explain this to you?”
“No.” She pushed him away, laughing. “A real god couldn't be male. Or female. Or human or animal. I meant it-”
“Maybe god's a fungus.” He plonked the stone down and stacked another on top.
“Shut up.” Nina chucked a micro-pebble at him. “I meant it metaphorically. I'd find it's soft spot. Like Achilles' heel.”
“Ok.” He piled on more rocks. This was getting serious. “God has a soft spot.” The tower was about as stable as a house of cards. “God has nuts.” Of course, rocks hurt more than cards. “You think god's a sentimental squirrel?”
Nina's pointing finger slow-moed it's way toward the tower.
“No!”
“Fine.” She scooted out of range of the tower. Her mouth twitched. “Boy squirrel or girl squirrel?”
“Oh, ha ha.” Three more stones. “We went to a church once, after my dad died. Mom thought it might help. Me, Mom and Gretch all fell asleep and Frances sat there, tearing the pages out of the songbook until some lady behind us poked Mom. Never again, Mom said.” The tower leaned. “You ever go to a church?”
“No, but I read the Bible once.”
“The whole Bible?” He dived clear as the tower collapsed.
“I skimmed the 'begats'.”
“The what?”
“Never mind. Have you ever read it? There's some pretty wild stories in there...”
“No way. It'd have to be the only book in the house for me to read it.”
“It was.”
--Mother (Re)produces
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5 comments:
The topic of weird families came up in class a while ago, and I ended up explaining Judah and Tamar. Talk about some crazy stuff.
I liked this. Really liked it. But I felt there was too much clever word play in a short space (could be just me), so it was distracting. And I wanted to read about what she'd say to god, be that an it, him, her, or fungus. I think the part about the sentimental squirrel is where it became too much word play. But really though, I like the tone of this one. Nicely done!
I'm with Chris.
This was very readable, it drew me in right away.
I like the way we learn about David and Nina through their interaction rather than being told.
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