Chapter 78: Rectory

Joan followed Father John through the courtyard and into an alley. John paused in front of a green door to remove his alb and dig his keys out of his cassock. He unlocked the door and stepped inside, but Joan wedged herself between the door and the frame before he could close it.

John stared at the determined whore on the threshold of his home. He'd known her for a decade, watched her grow into a young woman as she volunteered for countless church activities, sometimes alongside her mother and often on her own. He'd heard good things about her from the catechists, but she also had a reputation for asking them tough questions. They'd always said she was bound to do something special in life, but why this, of all things? "What do you want?"

"I want to know why you just up and abandoned your congregation like that."

"Because they're not mine anymore; they're yours. Isn't that what you came here for? You may have the congregation fooled with your sugar daddies' holographic technology, but I did some research on them after your mother asked me to pray for you."

Joan stared straight into his brown eyes and kept her lips still. «No. None of that was holographic. We're still figuring out how it works. We came here looking for answers.»

John sighed and released his grip on the door. "Come in."

Joan popped into John's small living room, followed by Tamara. Joan glanced around the cramped quarters and turned to her bodyguard. "Take a break. I'll call you when we're done."

Tamara nodded and left.

John plopped into a faded brown armchair, too emotionally exhausted to entertain elementary etiquette. "So, how many years has it been?"

Joan moved a pile of newspapers off another chair and sat down. "Since I stopped going to church entirely? Two or three."

"All that time, I was under the impression that you'd found a church closer to wherever you're living now. What changed?"

"A lot of things. First of all, I fell in love." Joan told him the same story she'd told her mother about her asexual boyfriend, adding how long she'd stuck with the church in her college town even after she'd abandoned the constraints of monogamy. Several minor incidents later, she'd reached a point where she no longer felt any value in attending church and gave up going through the motions.

The conversation drifted to philosophy, to Joan's growing sense that the people in her life mattered more than any gods worshiped by ancient peoples. They mused over examples of polygyny in the Bible and how Jesus didn't actually say much on the matter. Mary had responded with surprising warmth to the circumstances surrounding Joan's "immaculate" conception, which raised a new series of questions Joan hadn't had time to ask during the brief encounter. Did Adonai have a physical body? If so, did that body have contact with Mary's body? Did she go on to copulate with Joseph later? Did Jesus have siblings? Mary seemed adamant that those things didn't matter, but in a society without modern medicine, those things probably mattered a lot more. Where was Joseph during the Crucifixion? Was he dead, or had he abandoned his family? Joan wondered if the Holy Family had faced similar issues to the Aurelios. They might not have been as perfect as they seemed on the surface.

As John listened to Joan speculate, he found himself running out of answers. His resolve slipped a little with every second. "And you weren't as perfect as you seemed on the surface either."

Joan shrugged. "People say that God made us all perfect, so in theory, perfection should look different on different people. I just follow my heart and go where it leads me."

John contemplated this as he gazed at the woman before him. Perfection depended on a set of ideals based on beliefs, and Joan had thoroughly shattered his beliefs. "So you're proud of being a prostitute?"

"Yes. Prostitute is so formal, though. I prefer Whore."

John threw back his head and laughed. "All right, Whore. How much for a blowjob?"