Free Back to the Garden by Selena Kitt Page B

dread. “Is this...is this a... Halloween costume?” He choked on the words.
    She nodded reluctantly, biting her lower lip and, suddenly aware of how exposed she was, attempted to pull her skirt down.
    His face changed suddenly, from disappointment and despair, to absolute righteous fury. “You went to a costume party ?” he fumed.
    She nodded again, tugging at the hem of her skirt.
    He slapped her hand away, sneering, “Don’t you dare cover yourself. You deserve to be exposed for what you are! Do you realize what you’ve done? Do you?”
    She didn’t answer the rhetorical question, just winced and nodded.
    “I come home to take care of you because you said you were sick, and what do I find? Sick! Yes, you are sick! Heaven help you, girl! You have eaten the forbidden fruit from the tree, Lily. You are no longer innocent! ‘ And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that were naked! ‘” His voice shook with feeling, and she cringed again, quailing at the looming figure above her.
    His eyes closed for a moment and she waited, her breath coming in hitches. When he looked at her again, he was resolute.
    “Stand up,” he demanded.
    She obeyed, quieting the urge to pull her skirt down further.
    “Get me the wooden spoon.”
    She stood motionless, incredulous. The wooden spoon? He hadn’t used it on her in years! She couldn’t remember the last time...oh, yes, suddenly she did. She was thirteen, and he’d caught her with a teen magazine in her room, one filled with articles about rock stars and teen heartthrobs. She now remembered it very clearly.
    “Go,” he commanded, sitting rigidly in the living room chair, waiting.
    She made her way to the kitchen, swaying a little as she walked, as if the world were slightly tilted. She found it in the drawer next to the stove, buried underneath the can opener, the vegetable peeler, other more often used utensils.
    It was a big wooden spoon. She thought it had belonged to her mother’s mother, heavy and thick, with a large flat-backed head. She held it in front of her, like she was taught to carry a knife or scissors as a little girl. When she offered it to Adam, her hands trembled. He looked up at her, and her heart ached with contrition, and something else, feeling the sacrifice of Luke, the last vestige of her hope, pushed out the front door. Why did her heart feel torn right in two?
    “Daddy, please,” she whispered, sinking to her knees and bowing her head. Her hair fell like a waterfall across her tear-stained face, hiding her, and she was grateful. “I know it was wrong. I will pray for my sins. I will repent, I will...” She took a quivery breath, and felt his hand in her hair, finding her chin and lifting it.
    “You will,” he confirmed, nodding. “Yes, you will. It’s the least you’ll do. But Lily, this is no small thing. This isn’t a hidden CD or candy bar or magazine.” He looked pointedly at her and she knew he remembered, too, the last time she knelt here like this, years and years it had been. She’d been such a good girl, she tried so hard to please him, to meet his impossible standards.
    “I know, I’m so sorry,” she pleaded, reaching her trembling hand out to him. He let her bury her face in his lap, and he stroked her hair absently as he talked.
    “No, Lily, I don’t think you do know. This night of all nights, you should have been surrounded by God’s children, praying, keeping your soul intact and pure. Evil forces have taken you over, child. I can feel them in you. I can see them in your eyes. You have been tempted, and you have succumbed. You lied to me, Lily,” his voice shook and she sobbed harder in his lap. “You deceived me. You dressed yourself like a whore, a pagan slut, and went out among the wolves, as a sheep amongst the wolves. You brought home a boy and let his carnal lust overtake you. This is beyond sin, Lily. This is...” he paused, searching for a word that might encompass her actions, and finally