Lynne's father had taken him down to the basement to play pool. It was an unmitigated disaster.
First he asked Leif where he'd gone to College.
Leif smiled, and then replied,
"The school of hard knocks. I knew that college wasn't for me. So I didn't go. But I make an okay living as a musician. And, I've made my own program of study on a lot of topics. I have some real interesting conversations with Lynne," said Leif. It was a struggle not to relax and call her Lynney.
"The school of hard knocks isn't accredited. How do you expect to be able to care from someone else? Sounds like you can barely take care of yourself. I've been to that school, the school of hard knocks, and I'm lucky to have all this that I have. I wouldn't have any of it at all if I hadn't cleaned up my life and gotten right with God," huffed her father.
He asked Leif's opinions on several topics, mostly religion, and matters of faith, and Leif tried to stick to the script and be as vague as possible, sine Lynne had warned him.
Her father ended up reading a bunch of scriptures about the dangers of drugs, music, and immoral sex. Leif felt like he'd been to a church revival. But he couldn't say he hadn't been warned. He definitely understood now why Lynne had not wanted him to meet her parents. He only hoped that Lynne was fairing better with her mother upstairs in the kitchen making dinner preparations. Leif had wanted to get away from her father, and his annoying, bible thumping ways and had suggested helping in the kitchen, and her father wore a complete expression of utter shock and disdain.
"Can you cook Leif," said her father.
"I normally leave all cooking to Lynne sir, I can't boil water," said Leif.
Shit.
He hadn't meant to let it slip out that they were together so intimately. He hoped it wouldn't make trouble for her.
"Did you just see all those scriptures about premarital sex? Look I don't know what it is that you have going on with Lynne, but all I know is, she woke up one day, and she completely changed. We hope that she comes back to her senses and gives herself back over to God. You are a distraction for her, and I'm almost wondering if it's boys like you who have caused her to turn her back on her faith," said her father.
"With all due respect sir, Lynne is a grown woman, and what she chooses to do with her relationship with God, is between her and God. I'm not distracting her or making her choose to do anything she doesn't want to do. She'd already moved on from your church a year before she met me. Look, I suck..or...I'm not good at pool. I'm going to go upstairs and sit in the living room and wait. The conversation isn't doing us any good at all," said Leif.
"Okay...I'll see you at dinner," promised her father.
Leif heard him racking balls by himself down there. Leif thought he probably spent a lot of time with his balls to himself. Pool balls, and other balls. He was grinning to himself like a mad man at his own joke, to keep from punching the wall out of frustration.
***
Dinner was Hell on Earth for Lynne. She had no idea what happened in the basement, but when she came out of the kitchen, she saw that Leif was already sitting at the dining room table with his hands clasped. Lynne started sitting down several serving dishes on the table.
"Baby what's the matter," said Lynne.
She walked over and kissed him on the cheek. It looked like it made him feel better, but her mother looked a little shocked at the easiness of affection between the two of them, so Lynne rationalized that she needed to turn it down a bit.
"Nothing. It looks great. How can I help the ladies," said Leif.
He went into the kitchen and helped carry the roast and other sides, and helped Lynne set the table.
Finally they were all around the table holding hands, and saying grace. Lynne was embarrassed at how long the prayer was before the food. Her father thanked any and everything, and Lynne could see how anxious that Leif was getting with the good smelling food.
Lynne and Leif didn't even really say grace around the table together. When she remembered sometimes she prayed for the two of them. Leif told her he liked listening to her prayers. She was sweet and sincere. It was wonderful to pray with Leif openly, because in the faith she was raised, women were not allowed to pray when men were present. It was viewed as a sign of disrespect. But Leif was beautiful, and liberal, so they shared the duties of blessing a meal on those occasions when Lynne remembered. But sometimes, rather than praying Leif would say something beautiful about the variety of plants and how they all tasted different and how he was grateful for mother nature, and for his sweet Lynne. Leif was spiritual in his own way. He was beautiful, inside and out.
She wished her father could see that.
Everyone ate their food and chewed in silence. It was the quietest dinner ever.
Then, Lynne's father spoke up.
"So...I have to ask...how far have you two strayed. How serious has this whole thing gotten? Even if you have strayed too far, it's not too late if you have a repentant heart and want to do right toward god," said her father.
Shit. Shit. He was really going to ask her, in front of Leif, if they were intimate? She could not believe this! Frankly it wasn't any of her father's concern. Her father had invited her over. She hadn't sought him out. It was embarrassing, and most people did not understand the implications of straying as defined by their little cultic sec. Straying was the course of a sinner who had committed premarital sex. And it could be punished by excommunication. That meant that her father, her mother, and everyone else in the church, would not be able to talk to her, at all. That left her college buddies, Janelle, and her man Leif as her only support and friend in the world. And, her father was basically asking, if Lynne had a reason to be excommunicated.
It was funny that her father felt the need to pry into sexual matters now, but when she was with Martin, her father had batted an eye at Martin bringing her in at all hours of the night. 'That good church boy,' was what he called Martin. He was a good boy alright, a good boy who bullied her into sex, then raped her because the penetration wasn't deep enough. Her father scolded Lynne to hurry up and finish that Master's degree so she could hurry up and get married and give that Martin boy some babies. Her father had her life all planned out for her. As a tenured history professor, he told her that she'd have all her summers off to spend with her kids, and she'd be able to help raise them, and other children to be god fearing children and work with them in church related capacities over the summer because she was good with children.
And now, all of a sudden, he seemed to care whether her virtues were pure or not, because she was seeing a white man, with dreadlocks, with no money, and no obvious church affiliation. Oh the hypocrisy!
"Daddy, I can't believe you! What kind of person do you think I am!" said Lynne.
"I'm gonna ask you this, and I'm going to ask it one more time...how serious has this thing gotten? Are you living together and unmarried?"
Lynne heard Leif start speaking, and before he had a chance to say something that would change her life forever, and get her excommunicated from the church, she squeaked out-
"No Daddy. No, Leif and I are just getting to know each other as friends," said Lynne.
"Well...well that's a good answer baby girl. Because you know what the feeling is on that. You know how God feels about our clean and pure standing before God. I'd prefer you not sing in those clubs, and whatever wild parties might be going on, but we can't ignore the sex issue...that bonding was to be saved between man and wife. I know...I know the differences between the two of you might seem exciting, the race, and the religion, but you're really, you're really from two different worlds, and...I know that you'll wake up Lynne, and realize what a mistake that you've made, and it is a good thing that things aren't too serious. I mean, if you're really just friends and all that, then it paves the way for you to get back in your good standing with God," said her father.
