"These aren't books -- they're an abomination!"
Lindsay leaned toward the microphone and stared into the eyes of the local TV station reporter. "They are exactly the kind of corrosive degeneracy that is destroying our families and our nation."
"But what else can we possibly expect?" Lindsay went on, shaking her head with a convincing blend of sadness and disgust. "Our libraries are run by secular humanist, anti-family, liberal progressives. They make it a point to use our tax dollars to shove this kind of twisted sexual degradation right down our throats!"
Lindsay's blue eyes blazed. She smiled and stood rod-straight in her uniform of white blouse, navy skirt, pearls and confidence. Nothing made her feel more alive than being in front of a camera or onstage, leading the charge as spokesperson for the Crusade for Biblical Values. She doubted anything could.
"You're probably familiar with the 'Forty Grades of Perversion' series. But do you really understand what it contains? This is a 'book' that details a disturbed young woman's craving for submission, pain and degradation. It's right through those doors for anyone who wants to wallow in it! The entire series is on the left, just past the water fountain."
Lindsay held up a long list of books for the camera.
"For the future of our town, our nation and our society, these affronts to decency must be stopped. Join me. Join our cause! Together we can make our nation clean again."
The reporter and camera operator began to pack up and Lindsay gathered her notes and leaflets. The interview had gone well. The young reporter had let her talk and hadn't challenged any of her points.
Lindsay White was attractive as well as articulate, with dark hair and a smile that had brought admiring glances from male students and professors at Freedom University. Since graduating seven years before, she had used her media-savviness and wholesome girl-next-door looks effectively as spokesperson for the conservative family values advocacy group.
As she walked across the library's lawn toward the street, a tall man approached from her side.
"Aren't you Lindsay White? Of the Crusade for Biblical Values?"
Right on cue, thought Lindsay. She steeled for a barrage about her work to restore the nation's decency, which the man was certain to deliver.
But he didn't.
"It must be so hard to stand up for your beliefs the way you do," he said in a deep and surprisingly soothing voice. "I admire that so much. How do you do it?"
Lindsay breathed deeply and felt her shoulders loosen at the unexpected compliment from the man. She looked a bit closer. He was fit, neatly dressed, and had salt and pepper hair. And apparently, he had strong values.
"It's not easy," she said. "Our society is drowning in filth, sex, pornography and immorality. The liberals are trying to hasten our collapse. They attack me. They attack our group. They don't like to hear this, but they're doing Satan's work. People don't understand how important it is to stand up for God."
The man pierced Lindsay with his green eyes, hanging on her every word. "That must be difficult. I hear you saying that you're working so hard to save society from immorality, and people not only don't understand, they attack you."
Lindsay felt a peculiar warmth and a tingling along her spine. Despite her motives and years of hard work, she was often characterized as an extremist. It was refreshing to meet someone who seemed to truly understand - or at least wanted to.
He was at least a decade older, and probably more. Perhaps God had sent him as a spiritual mentor, or even a confidante.
"What a pleasure it is to meet you," he said with the barest shadow of a smile. "I'm Nick. Nick Obedire. I must tell you, Lindsay, I've been following your work for some time and it really is impressive. I confess that I've been wanting to get inside your head."
He lifted a small black backpack casually over his shoulder and they left the library behind, chatting easily about saving the world through the power of godliness and removing books. Nick seemed to understand, she thought, exactly how she felt about this fallen, sinful world.
"I overheard your interview," he said. "You were so passionate when you described the threats to our town."
"Well, it is the liberal media," she said. "Who knows if they'll really use any of it."
"Oh, they'll use it," he said with another hint of a smile. "The Lord works in all kinds of fascinating ways."
How odd, she thought. I can feel myself opening to him, as if his firm, silky voice is playing hide and seek with all the needy places in my mind.
Before she knew it they were standing in front of her small yellow house.
"I'd like to hear more, Lindsay -- about how it makes you feel. Help me understand what it's really like to struggle so hard for decency."
For a second she hesitated, but found herself removing her keys from her purse. "I do have a lot more to share with you," she said. "You have no idea the kinds of disgusting and dangerous things that are going on in this town, even as we speak."
They sat talking on the sofa in the afternoon light. He never seemed to talk about himself, but focused instead on her words.
"There are so many disgusting books at the town library," she said. "Some people think we aren't familiar with them, but I've read them all, sometimes three or four times, and have a deep understanding of the filth they contain."
Nick nodded.
"I know this is just one town, but it's only the start. There are 116,000 public libraries in this country. My ultimate aim is nothing less than a wholesale return to godly values." She leaned toward him and whispered. "We will lead a nationwide boycott of Amazon, until they agree to remove their vast library of smut and disgusting sex 'toys.'"
Nick placed his hand reassuringly on her thigh.
"Lindsay, you care so much for our nation, don't you? It must take a toll on you. Do you ever relax?"
"I...the Lord's work keeps me so busy. I guess...I guess I don't relax very often."
