Free In Search of Satisfaction by J. California Cooper

you slide further down. Don’t wait for the end to come first.”
    Yin was not naturally dumb, probably more lazy. She looked at Paul and said thoughtfully, perhaps testing him, “I don’t know if I can trust God again. He has never been as good to me as the devil, if what you say is true and the devil led me here.”
    Paul shook his head sadly again. “You play. I will not play with God, nor you.”
    “Well, what shall we do for the next few hours we are left alone here?”
    Paul smiled and sat up. Looking at the lovely woman before him all dressed for bed and love, he thought, “Get behind me, Satan, you are far too lovely to be in front of me right now.” To Yin he said, “Get a Bible, let’s reason together for this little while.” Yin hesitated. Paul laughed, “C’mon, let’s do something Willie and the old priest won’t like!”
    That did it, Yin jumped up to get a Bible. It took Yin quite a time to find a Bible among all the unread books on Miss Will’s shelves. Finally, way at the bottom in a corner, dusty and unused, the gold lettering flickered through the grit—HOLY BIBLE. She laughed, grabbed the book and, thinking of Miss Will, danced all the way back to her room. Handing the book to Paul, she fell back on the bed, ran her hand down her voluptuous length, threw her head back and laughed, laughed, laughed.
    • • •
    w hen Miss Will and the old priest returned, Paul and Yin were sitting in the parlor. Each held a glass of wine, each looked pleased and satisfied. This was much to the old priest’s delight, while Miss Will did not know whether to be pleased or not. She decided she would be pleased for her old useful friend’s sake; she would not be pleased with Yinyang though. She would soon replace this woman who could be so pleased with a man.
    On their way home, the old priest put his arm affectionately around Paul’s shoulders and said, “Well, now. I suppose you have had a very good and … fulfilling afternoon?”
    Paul moved away slightly. “It was a good afternoon, after all.”
    The old priest patted him on the back. “Well, that was what I planned for you to have!” He laughed and rolled his eyes gaily.
    “I have never had a bad time yet, doing the will of my God.”
    “The will of your God?! My Lord, boy, that was not …”
    Paul interrupted, “Yes, the will of my God. I was able to speak to her about Him and what He means to us.”
    The old priest was annoyed, his voice lowered, “At such a time, you felt that was necessary?”
    “It is what I live to do. Am committed to do. Teach.”
    The old priest turned to Paul, “It is not what I intended you to do. I did not tell you to convert her! It … it … wasn’t … the right time!”
    Paul turned to him. “I do not take my instruction in these matters from you. I take them from the Bible.”
    The old priest turned red with chagrin. “You presume to know more about these matters than I? I have been a priest for forty years! You do not know, can never know, as much as I about the ways of God!”
    Paul smiled slightly. “It is not the number of years a man knows of God that gives him wisdom and understanding. It is his brain. His soul and his heart. Sincerity. Love for God. Faith.”
    “Careful, young man, careful. You do not know what you are doing.”
    Before he walked away, Paul nodded and said, “I am afraid I do. Yes, I am afraid so. But I believe my care need only be that I do the will of God. Then I need not worry about man. At all.” Of course Satan heard all this and began to think of troubles to lay upon the young manto take his mind away from God. Satan also cast a glance at Yinyang. “Hell,” he thought, “There is so much to do in this world!”
    y inyang was a bit more quiet and thoughtful through the next few months. She watched Miss Will for signs of fading affection but instead she was more abrupt and demanding. So Yin began to think about and try to plan, as had her father, as have millions