All sexual activity described in this true story occurs between persons 18 or older at the time of the described activity.
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PROLOGUE
Eva perplexed her father the Pastor. He did not really see children as being much different than adults. It was a continuum, analog, not digital. And so he never treated his three daughters as being other than shorter, less physical adults with shorter attention spans.
Being a preacher was a lot like going to high school permanently. Lots of things you just had to do to prepare. Lots of reading and study and discussion. With Sunday morning services being the final exam.
Before they were of school age the Pastor took his girls with him to his church every day. His wife, their mother, worked there as well, she was kept very busy making appointments, managing his schedule, finding things, organizing things, cooking.
Eva loved the church, the building, its contents. The way there was a story behind everything. Especially the library and the hundreds of interesting books within. The Pastor's BA was in Textual Criticism, literally disassembling a work and examining it critically to unlock it's original meaning.
Original meaning was so important to Eva. If you believe that scripture exists to guide you, well isn't it really important to get the instructions right. She was reading at the second or third grade level when she went off to Kindergarten. All three days of it.
...
AUGUST 1963
The teacher had said "don't you want to do this" when what she meant was "would you please do this". Whatever it was, Eva did not 'want' to and she said no, and then kept doing whatever she had been doing.
It was an ugly teacher parent conference where the teacher lost a logical argument with a five year old in front of her boss and the Pastor. Then persisted, until she made her blatant idiocy clear to all present.
It was an epiphany for Eva. Unlike the other people in the room she was actively listening to the words being spoken. In so doing, she frequently caught three adults disseminating. They were not interested in teaching her. They were interested in breaking her and subjugating her to their will. Their arbitrary whims. No thank you.
The State of Texas did not require Kindergarten attendance, so she did not go back. Eva had a one year reprieve from the mundane reality of modern public education. A year of reading texts typically given to freshman seminarians. A year of shadowing the Pastor and his wife, of learning how to organize and run a church. Eva's little sisters, Lillian and Claire would just start school at the first grade.
...
MAY 1982
Eva perplexed her father the Pastor. So it did not come as a tremendous surprise when Eva arrived for Claire's high school graduation unmarried, in the eyes of the State at least, and in a very pregnant state. Her toddler in tow, accompanied by Lillian and Punch and his other grandchild, Lisa and Jamie, and George and Kristin and their child.
Eva studied, Eva knew what the text said, Eva constantly butted heads with the folks who just barely skimmed the 'Cliff's Notes' edition of the Bible and who semi-diligently attended services only on Easter and Christmas, when they could locate the church. Folks who couldn't differentiate Methodist from Episcopalian.
He knew she was doing good works at Azusa, her mission, although it was a tad Pentecostal for his church's governing body. He just wished she could see what it took him years to figure out. That people have serious flaws, like cracks in their character. To move them you have to get into their cracks from the oblique, pushing on the front door just closes the cracks.
He wished she would get a real diploma from a real seminary so that people would see her as a real minister of God. He didn't have to agree with her, or all of the choices she made in life. He just wanted others to respect her.
He admitted he was biased but still he couldn't find one 'wrong' thing she had done. One thing she hadn't thought through or a thing she had done that could not be scripturally justified. Even if was not the majority opinion. He wondered to himself, did Saint Joseph feel this way as a parent.
Claire, on the other hand, was just simply furious at her sister, both her sisters, but mostly at Eva. Eva could get Lillian to strip naked and dance at the podium at Claire's graduation if Eva wanted to. Eva could find some vague, obscure scriptural justification for anything. People talked, they talked about Eva and Lillian and Punch. And not in a nice way.
Claire had unkind thoughts. Eva was just there flaunting it, her belly bump. The never been married ordained Minister. Even that, it was a BS correspondence course ordination. Not from a seminary, even if it was legal. Flaunting the toddler she had in tow. The toddler fathered by Lillian's husband, the bump Eva's second child put there by Punch.
With Lillian's knowledge and consent. Heck, Lillian had told Claire that she was there when Eva conceived. There! There, probably cheering. Rah, rah, rah, give her an 'F', give her a 'U', give her a 'C'... Unbelievable, Lillian had told her she 'assisted'. That she had 'fluffed' Punch. Until that day she had not known the term. Now she just wished she had never learned it. The image kept popping into her head. Why? She didn't want to think of her sister doing that...
