Just before four, Curtis walked into her classroom and closed the door behind him. He looked a bit pensive before asking, "I heard you had lunch in the park with a new friend today. How'd you two meet?"
Hanna found herself mentally rolling her eyes at his clumsy and timid approach to what was really on his mind. She'd never liked that aspect of his personality. She wished he would just be direct instead of her having to answer fifty other questions while he danced around what he really wanted to know.
"I went to the park so I could sit and eat my lunch. It was a beautiful day today, and you know how much I enjoy watching children play. Scottie, that was her name, was there with her little girl. They're only in town for a short time, and she doesn't know anyone. I thought the Christian thing to do would be to be nice to her." Hanna replied. The last little bit a dig at her husband's insecurity.
Curtis had never been a very confrontational type of person unless it was with her. Even then, he was usually only parroting things told to him by her father or some other man of the church. She'd never before reacted with anything other than "Yes, Honey." That was just the way she had been raised. A wife was to be submissive to her husband's needs, provided he was fulfilling his role as the spiritual leader in the household.
Curtis seemed surprised at getting push-back from Hanna. She watched him, and when it appeared he was struggling with his reply, she asked, "Did I do something wrong?"
"Well..." Curtis managed to get out before once again beginning to sputter like an engine with bad spark plugs. Finally, he managed to say, "I was told she didn't appear to be very Christian like."
Hanna knew right then that one of both of the two women in the park had spread the word that sweet little Hanna, the youth Pastor's wife, was talking to a woman with an interracial child. Despite professing to be Christians, she knew most of the people around these parts still carried deep-seated bigoted or downright racists views on such things. She also knew that there were always women in this town that remained jealous over her success on the beauty pageant circuit.
Hanna wasn't going to have it today, though. She'd been through a lot in the last week. Lack of sleep and her loss of appetite was terrible enough. The guilt she'd endured over what she now knew was a feeling a lot of women had, seemed a bit silly. Combine all of those things, and Hanna's patience was wearing thin, even with her new husband.
"Tell me, honey, what exactly were they basing her not being a Christian on? I would really like to hear this answer." Hanna asked. Her voice was it's usual sweet self, but there was an edge to her question that clearly rattled her husband.
"Well...I...well...," Curtis stuttered before finally finding himself and trying to divert attention to the tone of the conversation. "Why are you so confrontational, Hanna? I really don't appreciate it."
Hanna was already flustered at being cornered by her husband over a simple conversation she hadn't even sought out. His words made her lose her temper with a man for the first time in her life.
"Oh, so that's how you see this conversation, huh?" Hanna asked, her voice rising both in volume and pitch. "Tell me, Curtis. Was it me that came to your office and accused you of doing something improper? No, I think it was the other way around. And by the way, I'm still waiting for you to give me a reason how you or your sources were able to judge whether or not this woman was a Christian. Was it in the way she was so loving to her child? No, that couldn't be it. Was it in the way she was so congenial and friendly to a stranger she met in a park? No, that doesn't make any sense, either?"
"Hanna, please..." Curtis said, clearly uncomfortable with both the tone and volume of her questions.
"Wait, honey," Hanna said, holding up a hand and interrupting him, "see, since you don't seem capable of giving me a reason as to why she isn't Christian. I thought we would eliminate the things it couldn't be. I say we keep going until we hit on the reason you felt so comfortable about coming down here and accusing your new bride of doing something wrong."
Curtis looked like he was close to fainting, and Hanna knew she wasn't entirely fair in how she was approaching him. But she was on a roll now and knew if she let him off the hook too quickly, it might embolden him.
"Well, she did smoke a cigarette, which isn't healthy for her body. But then again, growing up in this church, I happen to know that half it's members are apt to have a cigarette. Especially when they've had a drink or two. Then there is a large number of women in this church that do it in secret to help them keep their weight down. So tell me, Curtis, do we need to purge the member's roll of all those people?" Hanna argued, moving closer to her husband and starting to sound far less sweet than when she began.
"Hanna, stop!" Curtis said, finally finding his voice without breaking into a stutter.
Again she held her palm up, cutting off his rebuke. "Of course, if we remove all those people from the church's membership rolls, then we'll also have to get rid of the other half too. See, they are all overweight from their love of fattening and fried food."
Her voice dripping with sarcasm, Hanna made a pained face and said, "Ooooh, wait. We can't do that either, because that would include the Pastor. I mean, let's be honest with each other. At five foot six inches, he would have to lose about fifty pounds to be able to squeeze into a size forty pants."
Curtis had a look of sheer panic on his face. To his credit, though, Hanna could see he now knew it wasn't in his best interest to open his mouth. Doing so to this point had only gotten him in deeper.
"So that's another reason we can't establish her lack of Christianity, Curtis. So, would you like me to tell you the reason you were told that? Because I knew the second, you brought the subject up. I was just hoping it wasn't true of the man I married because otherwise, that would have meant I didn't know him like I thought I did."
She paused, waiting for an answer. When it became apparent to Curtis that she had no intention of going on until he answered her, he found his voice. "Yes, please tell me."
Finally, resuming her usually sweet cadence, Hanna said, "It was because her child was an interracial mix. Her mother, Scottie, is white, while the child's father, our landlord, by the way, is black."
Curtis collapsed down into one of the tiny chairs usually reserved for three and four-year-old bottoms. Hanna had to resist the urge to laugh at the site as her husband already looked like he might puke. She dropped to her knees in front of him, placing her palms on his legs for support.
"Curtis, I know you're not a bigot or a racist. I knew you were being used by someone who was. I'm sorry I was so hard on you, but you kind of had it coming for two reasons.
When it became apparent to him that she was going to make him ask, he said, "Why, Hanna?"
