The Blameless Bystander Ch. 07

"Anything else, Ethan?" she asked. Her husband shook his head.

"In that case, I'll leave you two to your business," she said. Jarrod and Ethan watched her as she paced slowly out of the room.

Ethan took a sip of hot coffee and then set the cup back on the saucer. "Life is less simple than it used to be," he thought out loud.

Jarrod continued with his coffee, pausing long enough to ask, "How so, Ethan?"

"It's everything!" Ethan answered. "We never needed so much money to keep the doors of the Church open. People would never think of being short on their tithes." Jarrod nodded and shrugged. "They would never dream of switching churches, like they do now. There were beliefs set in stone that everyone shared. No one questioned. It would only be necessary to keep repeating the lessons. People would keep listening. They had respect for the Word."

"You don't have to give up the old truths," Jarrod replied. "We just have to repackage them."

"I'm glad that I have you to help me," Ethan admitted.

"We make a good team, Ethan," Jarrod said. "We have to be careful on this 'School thing', but we'll make it work for us in the end."

"I never wanted to be anything but a preacher," Ethan confided. "I always knew that I had the calling to speak for God. My voice is His voice; my hands are His."

Jarrod did not answer, realizing that it sometimes took extra thinking to decipher what Ethan meant when he spoke.

"What we're doing is really for the good of the School, for the kids, in the long-run, Ethan," Jarrod finally broke his silence. He didn't notice that Ethan had closed his eyes, and turned his face toward the ceiling.

"Suffer the children and forbid them not to come unto me..." Ethan mumbled.

"What was that, Ethan?" Jarrod called out loudly.

Ethan opened his eyes and shook the cobwebs from his head. "Nothing, Jarrod," he said. "A passage just came into my head."

"We're doing well with the collections," Jarrod changed the subject. "We were able to catch up a month on the mortgage. That will keep the bank off our back for awhile."

It was time for Jarrod to return to his office.

"You look tired, Ethan," he advised his friend. "Why don't you try a catnap for a little while?"

"I'll just ask Judith to brew some more coffee," he answered. "I'll be alright."

"Just remember the plan we agreed on," Jarrod reminded as he opened the door to leave.

**************

The smell of sex hung in the air; the marijuana smoke was quickly covering it up. Brad sat cross-legged on the floor. He took a deep toke, and then passed the joint to Becky. Across the room on a sofa Donny Harmon and his girlfriend, Allison, did the same.

"My father told me 'No Drinking'!" Brad exclaimed after he finally exhaled, and then fell backwards laughing. "Thanks for the advice, Dad!" He began laughing again and the others joined him.

"My father told me that if I saw a cigarette I had to go straight home!" Becky giggled.

"It's not a cigarette, it's a joint," Donny corrected from across the room.

"I didn't know that," Becky played at sarcasm. "Brad always calls something else a 'joint'!" The four young people dissolved into laughter once again.

A great day for them was closing out. It had been a Homecoming win for Bates on the gridiron. Brad scored two touchdowns and passed to Donny for another. The Mantle of Invincibility was infectious. After the game they followed through with their plot for a lovers' tryst in the remote cabin. They paired off as soon as they arrived. Donny and Allison took the bed in the upstairs loft; Brad and Becky the fold-out sofa bed downstairs. After a round of sex the boys went out to dispose of Brad's used condom; Donny hadn't used one. They returned with their stash from the glove compartment of the SUV.

The sex on this night was, by far, the best that they had ever experienced. For one thing, it was the first time that they actually had done it in a bed. There was an element of comfort; a sense of not being hurried; an aspect of adultness that the girls enjoyed. For their partners there was the taboo of doing it within earshot of another couple doing the same thing. It was just a little kinky—and that meant exciting. There was the marijuana. Even better, the young men proved to each other that past boasts were true.

Brad and Donny needed some time to 'reload' so they had taken a little break for a touch of cannabis. It was Becky's first experience with it. Between the sex and the marijuana, they were all feeling pretty good.

Becky and Allison got up to go outside to the 'Ladies' room', which was really an outhouse about thirty yards away from the cabin. Brad and Donny stripped off their clothes and got back into bed. As the girls reentered the cabin they split up to their assigned places.

Becky quickly peeled off her clothes. She had dispensed with her underwear when they had taken their short break, so the process was quick. The moonlight streaming in through the nearby window outlined her lovely silhouette. Becky was tall and slender, like her parents. Her youthful, supple form was classic. Brad smiled to himself at how he had gone 'top shelf'. He wondered if Donny, above in the loft with Allison, was looking down at Becky, too. Brad found himself wanting to see Allison in the same way.

"An eyeful for and eyeful," he quipped the adulterated adage to himself. His thoughts shifted quickly as Becky slid into bed alongside him. From the loft above he heard moans and purrs as Donny and Allison intensified their foreplay.

Becky snuggled up against the length of Brad's body. She was in a mood to be loved and cuddled. That wasn't Brad's plan. He wanted something more exciting and daring, although he wasn't sure what that might be. He went along with what Becky wanted. In his short experience as a sex partner and boyfriend he had learned how a mood disruption at the wrong moment could lead to coitus terminus. He used the time to plan how he wanted to choreograph the final dance.

As was always the case, after a while Becky was ready for the next step. She reached down and grasped him softly. Brad thought about asking her for oral sex, but decided to put that off until her period arrived. He turned her on her back with his powerful body. Becky spread her legs for him.

"Brad! You're forgetting your condom!" she warned from below.

"I don't have any," he answered in a whisper. "I used my last one. I forgot to buy new ones."

"Brad, we can't do this! I have no protection!" she pleaded.

Brad paused, unwilling to stop, searching for an answer. "I timed your last period. I think that you're safe."

"No, Brad!" she scolded.

"Hey, you two!" Donny called down. "Are you gonna talk about it—or do it?"

"C'mon, Becky!" Brad exhorted.

"No, Brad!" she insisted.

"Becky, you're embarrassing me in front of Donny and Allison," Brad accused.

"Ask Donny if he's got a spare condom." Becky suggested.

"I thought you guys were gonna cut the chatter!" Donny called out again. Allison giggled.

"Becky, c'mon. Allison's on the pill. Donny doesn't need a condom." Brad retorted. "This is so humiliating!" He moved forward slightly, probing at the outside of her folds.

"I'll take it out before I come," he promised. "Please, Becky. Donny and Allison are listening."

"Please be careful, Brad," she whimpered. As soon as she said it Brad pushed into her. It was another first. Brad was careful to make it last a long time. He knew that Donny and Allison were still listening. Finally, Brad felt himself ready to ejaculate. He remembered that he had to pull out, but he wanted to time it so that he did at just the moment before he erupted.

He thrust once more deep inside Becky and that sent him over the edge. He withdrew himself from her. He was fairly sure that the first spurt came just after he cleared himself from her. Semen spat against her labia. He lifted up to finish and she felt the warm fluid covering her belly. She welcomed the sensation; it reassured her that Brad had done as he promised. She felt the poorly aimed spatter, too.

"Get me a towel, Brad—quick—before this stuff gets inside me," she pleaded. Brad was glad to comply, since Becky was quite a mess. "That was close, Brad. You should have pulled out sooner."

"Relax, Becky! The initial burst doesn't have any sperm in it. I learned it in biology," he assured her.

"I never learned that," she protested.

"Maybe it was Health," he mumbled.

At that point Donny and Allison descended from the loft. Donny wore only his jeans. Allison had a blanket wrapped around her. She shuffled to the bed where Becky was sitting nude. She had pulled the sheet up to cover her breasts. Allison hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.

"You finally did it without a condom," she said and kissed her again. "I hate them! I think they should outlaw those things."

"Yeah!" Donny agreed. "Natural contact is so much better."

"But you're on the pill," Becky protested.

"You can be, too," Allison replied. "There's a clinic in Hornell. You're eighteen. They can't tell your parents if you don't want them to. We'll go together next week."

"Thanks, Ali," Becky said softly, finding new bonding with the girl that before that night she knew only slightly.

It was warm in the cabin. Brad had put on a pair of gym shorts and gotten out of bed. Becky threw on her sweatshirt and panties. She went to the water pump to wet the towel and she washed herself off better.

"It's only eleven," Brad said. "Why don't we fix something to eat?"

***************

The four teens were finishing the makeshift meal that the girls prepared. They had already had sex twice, smoked marijuana in between and confided in one another while they ate their meal. It was all so nice in their little hideaway, if only for one night and a day. They sat about in various modes of undress, free to do and feel as they wished. It was like being Tarzan and Jane, in stereo.

When the food was gone Brad took out the rest of the marijuana. He rolled it in a paper, lit it and passed it around. It had a mellowing effect. Inhibitions melted away.

For Becky, the new sisterhood with Allison allowed her to be more at ease with her sexual relationship with Brad. She often wondered if she was quite ready for it. Here was a new-found sister who was even more experienced than she was and gave her encouragement to soothe her nagging doubts. She forgot her worries about the condom-less sex with Brad a short time earlier.

Brad and Donny were close friends for a long time, bonding on the football field. It had been Donny who educated Brad on the ways of sex when Becky became 'ready'. When Becky finally allowed Brad to take her in the church basement, Brad told Donny about it before anyone else.

Donny had an athlete's body, but was quite different from Brad's. While Brad was broad and powerfully built, Donny was lean and built for speed. Brad's chest was smooth and hairless; Donny's a thin forest. Becky caught herself looking at it and wondered what Brad would feel like if he had hair on his chest like Donny. Her nipples hardened as she thought about them coursing over the silky strands. Donny was looking at Becky's long slender legs, descending down from under her sweatshirt. He viewed their full length, as she wore only her panties and sweatshirt.

Brad gazed at Allison. Though covered in a blanket, he knew that she was nude beneath it. That blanket could be undone easily enough, he knew. Donny had regaled Brad many times with stories about how wild Allison was when she was turned on.

Allison, perhaps the most sophisticated of the four, watched the other three, deciphering the gazes and body language.

"We have a lot of work to do in the morning." Brad broke the silence. "We have to get the smell of the weed out of here before we leave. We can build a fire in the wood stove. That should cover it up."

"It won't be too bad if we all pitch in," Becky added. "

"It will be worth it. This has been really cool," Donny said. "Brad you should stop at a hardware store on the way back and get a copy of the key made."

"Owww! That sounds interesting," Allison cooed.

"We could come up here all the time, until we go away to college next year," Donny said.

"It will be our secret!" Becky gushed.

"I feel like doing something special tonight," Brad blurted out. The other three said nothing, waiting for him to continue. "Donny, why don't you sleep with Becky, and I'll sleep with Allison."

Wow!" exclaimed Donny, and said no more, leaving his eyes and jaws gaping open.

"What? Not me—no way!" Becky protested. "Brad, how could you even think such a thing?"

Allison moved closer and sat down next to Becky. She thrust an arm out from inside her blanket and wrapped around her confused friend. "It will be really nice, Becky. We'll be sisters and share our men. It will show how close the two of us are. It'll be our secret—just the four of us," she consoled her.

Becky looked at Donny and his forest of silky chest hair. She saw him looking back. "He'll take it out before he comes, just like Brad did," Allison promised. "Won't you, Donny?"

"Oh, sure," he said, eloquently.

"We'll just try it this once, and if you don't like it, we'll never do it again," Allison vowed.

"Promise, Ali?" Becky asked. "I don't want to spoil our being friends."

Allison nodded and kissed her on the cheek. She stood, took her by the hand and walked her over to Donny, whose arms were outstretched. He embraced her, and rubbed her back through her sweatshirt and down to her sculpted buttocks.

In the meantime Allison made her way to Brad and they climbed together into the loft.

The two rematched pairs stayed together until morning. Donny pulled out of Becky as he promised and ejaculated on her belly. Donny was different, in some ways better than Brad. Becky listened to Brad and Allison in the loft. She wondered if Brad grunted and moaned as loudly with her as he did with Allison. It was a different experience. Becky couldn't be sure if she was glad, or regretted it. She sensed that from that night her life would be different.

**************

Ethan couldn't know of his daughter's exploits the prior night. He believed her story about the cheerleaders' sleepover at Karen's house. It vexed him that she wasn't present for Sunday service. He accepted it because he had learned that an absent teen was far preferable than one in attendance who wished they could be anywhere else and wanted the world to know it.

He looked out over the congregation filling every pew. It was an easy change to get used to, and if he could keep it up the church's financial troubles would be old news. The editorial in the Sentinel had cooperated quite nicely in Ethan's plan to fill his church with attentive listeners. Everyone assumed that Ethan would proclaim, as urged by the Sentinel, the name of the demon threatening to defile their children. A Sentinel reporter was in the congregation, tape recorder at the ready. Jarrod Morris assumed his customary front-row seat—a sentinel in his own way.

On this Sunday Ethan abandoned his trademark 'fire and brimstone style'. He was subdued and pensive. It was the right approach because the congregation absorbed the weightiness of the subject matter that had so quickly become the focal point of their spiritual existence. Ethan had just finished leading them in a prayer for guidance. The choir was singing "A Mighty Fortress". The faithful were being prepared to gird themselves for battle. The mood was somber and inspiring. The hymn concluded and Ethan took the pulpit to start his sermon.

"Friends, we have prayed for guidance, and guidance we have been given," Ethan began soberly. "Once, we thought that our way was simple—to expose sinners in the midst of our children."

A few 'yeas' and 'amens' rose from the midst of the seated crowd.

"God has altered our mission," Ethan continued. "We have His calling. We cannot refuse HIM." The assembly murmured as Ethan paused. "Will you take up God's mission with me?" he humbly asked.

The congregation sang out in unison. "Yea! We're with you Ethan!" The organist played a four-beat chord for emphasis. The Reverend smiled at the answer, for his flock had committed themselves before learning the essential question. Ethan resumed his somber tack as the assembled worshipers quieted.

"I had intended to disclose today, the identity of the sinner in our High School. It is a sinner whose sin is so great that we can barely ponder the reality of it. Now, I cannot. Something of great import has happened. It is for us to shoulder the burden for all—not for only our church—but for all churches in this town." Ethan's words were softly spoken, but the commandment thundered in the hearts of the multitude. He held them in his hand with his sober oratory.

He was Moses descending from the mountain. They sat in fear that Ethan would hurl down the sacred tablet and smash it to bits on the hardwood floor of their sanctuary. They dared not challenge him; they sat, frozen, in fear of a bolt of lightning and a clap of thunder that would signal their damnation if they even harbored a secret doubt.

"Our School Board, elected by us, makes demands of me—and that means they demand of the Church—and God. They have seduced the newspaper to do their evil bidding. Shall I tell of their demand?

The crowd erupted. "Yes! Yes! Tell us, Ethan!"

Jarrod Morris, in the front row chuckled to himself as they begged Ethan to tell them, for all had read the editorial in the Sentinel.

"They demand that I give up the name of the sinner to them. I will not do it. This Church will not knuckle under to the commands of government. It is the principle carried across the perilous ocean by the brave Pilgrims. It is why our great nation was founded." The church erupted once again as Ethan basked in their adulation. When he was satisfied, he quieted them by lifting up his arms.

"Bob Jackson believes that he is king," Ethan proclaimed. "We will not bow down to this self-proclaimed king. It is a principle of Separation of Church and State. I defy Bob Jackson and all his newspapers and court orders." Ethan paused while the crowd cheered him yet again. He raised his hands for quiet and then resumed.

"We demand that Bob Jackson give up the name," he continued. "Let it be printed in the Valley Sentinel." He pointed an outstretched finger at the reporter seated in the back pew. "Tell them that Miss Hardaway!" The assemblage erupted anew. All of those present in the church turned and focused gaping scowls at the lone young woman. They barred their teeth like angry Dobermans. She grabbed up her equipment and fled the church.

Ethan descended from the pulpit and the choir began singing "God Bless America." Ethan sang the loudest and the people joined in.

When all the people were gone Jarrod Morris met Ethan as he came back inside the church. "What court orders were talking about, Ethan?"

"I had a vision into the future," he answered.

"Ethan, you have to be careful when you talk like that. Some might not understand." Jarrod warned.

"That is not important," Ethan replied. "It is only important that I understand my visions. I receive them from the Father."

Jarrod looked into Ethan's eyes and tried to read what was in his faraway look, but could not. "This whole thing has been a strain on us all," Jarrod consoled Ethan and himself. "I'll be glad when the Holidays are here."

***********

TO BE CONTINUED

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