An Indigo Bunting

"Sure. Can you unzip me?"

Our clothes were a heap on the kitchen counter including my cufflinks and the stupid little shirt button thingys. With fluffy towels in one hand and large plastic margarita glasses in the other, naked, we marched out the sliding back door. The landscape lighting was on.

"I just love this resort Frank."

"The resort has a new employee, she's fantastic." I undid the cover.

"What makes her so fantastic?" she asked as she slipped into the tub.

I slipped in too, "Well besides that fact that she is elegant, refined, intelligent, beautiful, sexy, witty and smart and funny as hell...I think it's the enthusiasm that she brings to her job that makes her so fantastic." Sophie was under my left arm, my right hand fingers found her shaved pussy.

We kissed.

"I heard that she loves her new job," she whispered as I diddled her clit with my fingers. Her lips felt rubbery in the water.

"Well the chef, the bartender, the waiter, the manager and the one male guest, you know that weird guy upstairs in the Ikea suite, they all simply love her." I continued to diddle her.

"Hmmm..." we kissed again, "the guy with the big peh...cock? I think I met him." My cock was stiff. Her fingers were on it already.

In one motion she straddled me and put her hands behind my neck. "Here?" she asked in a low voice.

"And now." I answered.

With her face pressed up against my chest she used both hands to open up her pussy lips and pull my cock into her. I could feel tightness envelope my cock. I rolled my hips upwards as I pushed her shoulders down.

"Unngh," she groaned. I was in. All the way.

I held her to me with my left arm she put her arms around my neck and tried to kiss me but I twisted both myself and her around and reached out with my right hand to the hot tub controls.

The tub bubbled to life as all the jets and the underwater lights came on full.

"Ohhh!" she squealed, "Ahh..ha..haa!" Musical.

It was a sudden sensory overload. I stood crouched in the center of the tub holding Sophie, who sat on my cock. The bubbles battered our bodies from every which way. There was no need to fuck, we just needed to hang on for the ride. We kissed. I shoved my tongue deep down her throat. Her eyes were rolling.

"How wonderful!" she squealed over the roar as the bouncing broke up our kiss.

We bounced back together. "Are you going to be able to cum?"

"Are you kidding? With that thing in me...ahh..ha..haa!" Her eyes rolled to the music in her voice.

I guessed that was a yes. I sure as hell knew that I would.

Sophie's eyes closed and the smile washed off her face as she tried to rest her forehead against my shoulder. My right index finger found her bum hole, immediately she lifted her head with eyes wide open, stared into my eyes but said nothing. Then she rested her head back down onto my shoulder.

I wiggled the finger a little. The bubbles kept bouncing us around. I could feel Sophie's breath against my ear and then suddenly and simultaneously I could feel a slight tightening on my finger, definitely on my cock and hot breath rushing to my ear.

She was cumming. Our bodies bounced around. And cumming. We bounced. And cumming. I tried to help by fucking her, but it was no use. As long as I had my finger inside her she was pinned to me. And cumming. I had to concentrate on keeping us upright. And cumming.

Just then I came to the sudden realization that I was on a collision course with my own point of no return...she was still cumming!

Two more tub bounces and that was it. I pulled her in close, jammed my finger inside as far as it would go and blew up inside her. She made an audible gasp. Or perhaps it was me. It was a real effort for me not to lose my balance. I'm sure my hips were pumping uncontrollably underwater.

Sophie was still cumming!

When I felt my cock shrinking inside her I pulled out and shut the jets off.

The silence was deafening once the final bubbles burst.

"Wow," said Sophie. We hugged.

"Sophie, your capacity to orgasm never ceases to amaze me."

"Frank, your capacity tomakeme orgasm never ceases to amaze me!"

"How are your insides?"

"Battered. How's your cock?

"Soft. Spent. The lad's gonna be in hiding mode for a while."

"Wait, what about your morning hard-on?" she was genuinely concerned.

"Oh don't worry about that," I laughed.

She kissed my cheek.

"We've not touched our Margaritas."

"Ohh...a Margarita!"

We both floated to the other side of the tub and reached out for our drinks.

The air was just slightly cool. There were stars in the sky. It was a gorgeous night.

"Okay your turn Sophie. I've not heard this Arian thing yet."

"Are you sure."

"I'm sure you're a little upset with the Catholic Church, that I get."

"Well I'm not upset with them. I just don't believe them, or the Christianity that they've built."

"Heresy. I'm in for heresy. I know it." I took a sip of my Margarita and set it down on the side of the hot tub. Sophie did the same.

She slid up onto my lap. She was almost weightless in the water. "I'm going to have to put all of this into some historical context."

"I'm all ears."

"Jesus died, as far as we can tell about the year 33 CE."

"I'm sorry is it Common Era or Christian Era? And what was wrong with A.D.?"

"Anno Domini, the year of our Lord? It was political correctness in action. I've always thought it was Common Era."

"Okay."

"Jesus was a Jew living under Roman occupation. At the time the Jews were aligned more or less into three sects, which were basically socio-political parties. The Pharisees were your basic hard working, God fearing, everyday Jew. The Sadducees, they were the aristocrat elites. And the Essenes, the smallest of the three sects, whew, they were basically the hippies of the day. They lived in communes, ate together, took communal baths, had funny ideas, chose voluntary poverty, refused to cut their hair and dressed in all white. Some were celibate."

"Basically nut-balls." I added.

"Absolutely. Anyway, the Roman attitude at the time was – we don't care what you Jews do or who you pray to, just pay your taxes and don't create any trouble."

"Okay. Fair enough I guess."

"The Sanhedrin was the local Jewish council at the time, which looked after local Jewish affairs. It of course had to report to the local Roman authorities. In Jesus' day the Roman governor was a guy named Pontius Pilate."

"Alright I remember, but I have to admit I could never figure out Pharisees, Sadducees and Sanh..."

"Sanhedrin. The local Jewish council."

"Yeah, I could never exactly figure out who was who. This is good. You're putting it all into a context I can understand."

"Good," she said, then added, "if I'm going to fast or there's something that you don't quite understand..."

"No, go on."

She paused for a moment, "Under Roman law, you were fine and safe as long as you were a Roman citizen. If you were a slave, you were owned by someone. Having sex with your slave, whether male or female, was basically one step up from masturbation. If your master wanted to starve you, cut your hand off, or sell you or have his drunken buddies screw you in the ass repeatedly until you bled, it was his prerogative. You as the slave, didn't have a voice."

I simply watched her as she spoke. Those were some pretty harsh words coming from her.

"If you were living as the Jews did under Roman occupation, you were neither a Roman citizen, nor a slave. Your status was somewhere in between."

"Okay."

"No one liked Roman occupation, but at the time the Jews learned how to make the best of a bad situation. They learned how to live with it."

"Okay."

"Jesus, it is now believed, by some, came from the Essene community. He was preaching, what we now recognize as the Essene message."

"Which was?"

"I'll get to that in a minute."

"We know, or rather we are led to believe, that Jesus was hugely charismatic. He had throngs of people listening to him. Following him. A huge fan base. Whether it was true or was perhaps embellished later, was that He was from a royal blood line, from David, and that therefore he was the King of the Jews."

"Okay, I remember that."

"He went to the Temple, upset the tables of the moneychangers, was preaching all of that Essene hippy-dippy nonsense and in a word, upset the mainstream Pharisees and the Sadducees, your average God fearing, hard working, Roman law abiding fellow citizens. The Sanhedrin, the local council appealed to Pontius Pilate, the local muscle – just get rid of this guy."

"And they crucified Jesus."

"So the New Testament tells us."

"What, you don't believe that?" I couldn't believe my ears.

"Oh no, I believe it. In fact we know from a very few non-Christian sources three facts pertaining to Jesus. There was a movement led by a Jew named Jesus or Christ, he was executed, and the movement continued following his death. We can certainly confirm the last of the three, can't we?"

"Yes, we can." I wasn't sure where Sophie was going with all of this, "The Romans fed Christians to the lions. Why?"

"Yes they did, but that wouldn't be for a while. Not until the message spread far and wide."

"Okay so what was the message?"

"Well, there were several. But the basic message was – treat others as you would have them treat you. The meek shall inherit the world. God loves you the same as everyone else. We are all equal in the eyes of God. Help others. Forgive your neighbor."

"Okay, I get that."

"You have to put those messages into the context of the time to understand the profound implications of those sentiments. If you are a slave, it's music to your ears. If you are a slave owner, it makes no sense at all. The meek inheriting the world? You've got to be joking. The powerful inherit the world. The meek become slaves. And why are these slaves getting together like little mice in the corner praying to a cross? Are they plotting a revolution from within?"

"I never really thought of it that way."

"But there was a little more to it than that. As I said, the Jews were not happy under Roman occupation. Many fellow Jews saw in Jesus' life and death a fulfillment of Jewish prophesy. One of a servant suffering the sins of the entire community and in another prophesy God making the Jews whole again and raising them up three days later. They coupled Jesus' death and apparent resurrection to those prophesies. He was a star. In addition, Jesus' crucifixion and the symbol of the cross became a symbol of supreme martyrdom and an iconic banner for disenfranchised Jews rather than what the Roman's intended the murderous act to be, a display of humiliating defeat. Couple that with the basic Essene message and you've got a fire on your hands. He became, to some, the prophesied Messiah."

"Wow."

"Well, here's what happened. The disenfranchised spread the message and the story of Jesus' life in various versions, from differing viewpoints and with differing emphasis on the various messages. The stories spread not just amongst the Jews but amongst the Gentiles too. He and the cross became the symbol of defiance against Rome. In 66 CE the Jews revolted against the Romans. It took them four years but the Romans got the Jewish rebellion under control, burning down their temple in the process, their Second Temple. They looted the place and shipped off tens of thousands of Jews as slaves as a result, with Christianized Jews amongst them. Many, many others fled. Those crazy new borne Christian or Essene ideas together with the idea of Jesus as the martyred, resurrected Messiah spread even faster and further as a result. And yes, eventually the Romans started feeding Christians to the lions."

"Margarita?"

"Yes." We both floated over to our drinks. "Am I going too fast for you? Are you okay with all of this?"

Taking a sip I said, "No, no...I'm fine keep going."

She sipped her Margarita too, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I just didn't know any of this stuff. It's fascinating. You're fascinating." I took another sip and replaced my plastic glass to the side of the hot tub. Sophie did the same.

After settling back onto my lap she continued, "In the year three eleven AD, if you prefer, a fellow named Constantine became Emperor of the Roman world. He was an absolutely brilliant historical character. Anyway, his mother, some believe, was Christian. He decided as a political expediency that he would adapt Christianity as the official Roman religion, placing himself of course, at the top of the food chain. Being Emperor he was already master of all things Roman, but now as self proclaimed head of the Christian movement he had the hearts and minds of the little people too. He was after all a demi-god. He really was a brilliant man, he re-united Byzantium and Rome together, hence Constantinople."

"Which is now called Istanbul."

"That is correct."

You make it sound all so simple."

"I have to. I teach grade four. Bear with me I'm getting to the heart of the story. Constantine had a basic problem with Christianity. It came in too many flavours and the Christians couldn't even agree amongst themselves. They had been arguing about who is right, which testimonies should be read, which should be ignored, who was heretic and who wasn't for almost three hundred years. They would even get into fist fights about it. Various bishops would put together lists of books that should be studied and included in their canon of the New Testament and they would preach that to their flock. Other bishops preached a slightly different Christianity to their flock."

She stopped to see if I was following. "I understand."

"Once Constantine stopped persecuting Christians and opened his imperial treasury to the rebuilding of churches, churches that the Romans had previously been actively destroying, then the in-fighting between various bishops really began in earnest. Everyone was trying to curry favour with Rome. Let the gravy train begin."

"I have to admit Sophie, I've not heard this before."

"To solve the problem Constantine called a big meeting, what is now referred to as the Council of Nicaea. Every invited bishop, or those that attended, had a chance to yak it up and express their views. Even Constantine attended for a while, but generally he left a young eighteen year old scribe as general secretary and as we would call it today, to chair the meeting."

"Where do you get all this?"

"It's history Frank. Seek and ye shall find."

"Okay."

"Anyway the idea was that they would argue their positions, let logic prevail, compromise when needed and hopefully find common ground and agreement. All in the backdrop of Christian faith and fellowship."

"Did it work?"

"There may have been a fist fight or two, but yes in the end it worked, even if it took the might of Rome to come down and in effect imposed its will. They set out rules for a catholic, that is universal church, chopped up all their lands into separate diocese, established a rank system - bishop, priest, deacon, set up lines of communication, negotiated agreements on key dates such as Easter, argued amongst themselves until they came up with the holy trinity, that is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as One and tossed out everyone else that disagreed with them including Arius calling him a heretic."

"I never did get that Father, Son and Holy Ghost thing."

"Of course not, they compromised and came up with that. I can just see them: 'Okay if you can't agree and sign onto this, then get the hell out of here, you heretic!'"

"Really?"

"Yes! That's what it boiled down to."

"So using the might of Rome and its treasury, the Bishop of Rome, the very same eighteen year old that chaired the Nicaea meeting, established which documents should make up the catholic canon. They selected four particular versions of a testament of Jesus' life that they liked, a bunch of letters from Paul which suited them just perfectly, a few other letters and one particular odd book of vivid prophesy, all of which were cherry picked to suit their version of reality and which most suited them to maintain their position of power. Everything else was to be burned as heresy."

"You make it all seem a bit crooked."

"Of the eleven hundred bishops that were invited to Nicaea, only about a quarter showed up."

"So it wasn't even the majority view?"

"We can't be sure, but probably not."

"What happened to the other Christian viewpoints?"

"Marginalized, faded off in history. Their books burnt. Lost."

"Wow."

"In the new Roman world, in the Christian one, if you wanted to get into a position of power and wealth, you did so through the Catholic Church. Starting with Constantine, that was the new order of things. Election through the all male club was done behind closed doors as it still is today."

I was speechless. She really was speaking heresy.

"So the message that they came up with, largely using the storyline logic that Paul had run with, who, he admitted himself, never met Jesus, was a slight twist on the fulfilling of Jewish prophesy theme. It went like this: Christ died for your sins. You will find eternal salvation through your devotion to Jesus Christ and we here in the Catholic Church are the only ones that can get you there. Tell us your deepest secrets, that is confess your sins and we will take your personal issue up with God on your behalf. If you turn your back on us and whatwetell you is the truth; then you are turning your back on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and you will burn in hell as a result."

"Hang on I need another sip of my drink," I said. We both reached for and took sips of our Margaritas and then replaced the plastic glasses. Hers was finished. "I'm still not quite sure what makes you a New Christian as you called yourself."

"I'm just getting to that part. She floated back onto my lap.

"Two events happened not so long ago, from which the ramifications are only now starting to be felt. In 1945 at Nag Hammadi near Luxor in Egypt, a collection of ancient books was discovered. Those are copies of the same books that Rome demanded be burned. The Gnostic books. The other side of the story. The non-Pauline inspired books. The books you'renotsupposed to read."

"I've heard the name."

"Well, I'm reading them. They're online. And many scholars have written about them. In 1948 at Qumran near the Dead Sea a bunch of scrolls were found. They pre-date Jesus but are a collection of mainly religious writings from the Essene commune that was there. It may very well be that those are the very same documents that Jesus read and learned from and then subsequently preached."

"Really?"

"Yup and from the Catholic Church's point of view...none of it is good news. Their story is blown."

"I've never really had it put quite so bluntly. So what's in these books?"

"From what I've read and I've not read it all, there's a lot of nonsense that probably justifiably should have been ignored and some fairly radical ideas."

"Such as?"

"Well the main ideas are the Gnostic ideas, the Essene messages distilled through Jesus' ministry. But there are other radical elements too."

"Such as?"

"Jesus was married."

"Well that's DaVinci Code."

"Dan Brown wasn't the first to suggest that."

"What else?"

"Jesus didn't die on the cross. He got pulled down before he died and was resuscitated."

"No wonder they tossed Arius out."

"That has nothing to do with Arius and I'm not saying that I believe it. But this I can say. A careful reading of the New Testament with that thought in mind opens up new possibilities."

"I guess it all boils down to what you want to believe in."

"That's exactly right. So you wanted to know what I believe in? What I have faith in? I believe in myself and my ability to think for myself and my freedom of choice to park my faith wherever I choose. So yes I believe in God. Yes I believe in Jesus. Are Jesus and God elements of the same thing, the holy trinity? No I don't believe that. He was a man, of flesh and blood, with perhaps extraordinary insights and perhaps even the ability to perform miracles through faith alone. Is there more Margarita?"