Father Peter O'Leary's beige sedan pulled up at the police blockade. The sombre vicar rolled down his window as the law enforcement officer approached the car. At least, Peter assumed the man in the hazmat suit was a police officer.
"What's this?" asked O'Leary, "burning cows again?"
The officer pulled down his disposable face mask and peered into the car, looking rudely past the vicar at the demure young woman beside him. Peter O'Leary bristled but knew better than to trouble the law.
Beside him, Mary's snow white cheeks blossomed and she folded her arms over her buxom chest, praying silently that the officer's unflinching gaze would pass by her soon.
"It's not foot-and-mouth disease," the officer finally answered, turning back to her father, "there was a small leak at the Bio-Tech plant. It's nothing."
"You said that last time," O'Leary replied gruffly, "no good comes of man playing God. Mark my words, son."
The officer didn't bother to hide his impatience. With one last, leering glance at Mary, he waved them through the cordon.
--
"Small leak my ass."
"Daddy!" Mary exclaimed, shocked at her father's outburst.
"Forgive me, Father," Peter said mechanically, crossing his chest with one hand as he navigated a bend in the road.
"No, Daddy! Look out!"
Peter slammed his foot onto the brake. The threadbare tyres of the old sedan squealed in protest as the car fishtailed erratically over both lanes, before coming to a halt a hairs-breadth from two animals rutting in centre of the road.
"Don't look, Mary!" Peter cried, flinging a hand over his aghast daughter's eyes.
"What's wrong with them, Daddy? Why are the horses fighting?"
For a moment, the vicar was speechless. A morbid fascination held his gaze on the stallion mounting the horse in the middle of the road.
"They're...they're angry, sweetheart. That's it. They're upset that someone let them out of their field."
"Should we help them?"
"No!" Peter exclaimed, still blocking Mary's view as he slowly drove round the wildly humping animals, "No... someone will be along shortly."
--
Mary slipped out of her ankle-length skirt, pulled the oversized knitted sweater over her head, studied her reflection in the locker room mirror, and cringed. The nineteen year old had blossomed much sooner than most of the girls her age, developing the ungainly DD's and thick butt that had caused her so much trouble.
She didn't WANT the boys to look at her that way. She hadn't ASKED for their attention. Not that it made any difference, her father still seemed to hold her responsible, tarring her with the same sinful thoughts of the lercherous choir boys.
Hasty to hide her shame, Mary pulled on the thick choir robes that mercifully disguised all but the vaguest outline of her figure.
"Pssst...Mary!"
Mary whipped round to find the grinning face of Lucas, one of those troublesome choir boys, peeking through the cracked door.
"Lucas! How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough," he laughed.
"But you mustn't! It's sinful."
"Relax," Lucas said, stepping into the locker room, "I won't tell if you don't."
"Tell? Lucas, He sees everything!"
"Your pops?"
"The Lord! Solomon 2:7, 'Do not arouse or awaken love unit it so desires.'"
"Huh?"
Mary rolled her eyes, surprised, yet again, at the depths of Lucas' ignorance. "No sex before marriage, doofus."
"Oh! That's exactly the point. I've got something to show you. Come with me to the eaves."
"I don't know, Lucas. I'm supposed to be helping the kids in Sunday school."
"It won't take long, honest, and I promise you're going to like it."
Mary wavered. She knew her father would be mad if she flunked Sunday school. But something about Lucas' wild green eyes and easy smile always brought out her mischievous side, meagre that it was.
"Ten minutes. Then I'm leaving."
--
Lucas led Mary through the church to the small staircase that led up to the organ balcony at the back of the church. From there, Lucas guided Mary into a narrow gap between the back of the organ pipes and the stone wall, to a hidden door directly behind the central pipe.
"What is this place?" Mary asked, her intrigue overcoming her reservations as she ducked beneath a low doorframe into a small room.
"I think it's an old storage space," Lucas explained, "I guess people forgot about it once the organ went in."
The dusty room was packed with odd bits of furniture, heaps of ancient hymn books, and a stack of mats like the kind the children played on in Sunday school.
"This is cool but I need to get back before Daddy misses me."
"I haven't even told you the best bit yet."
That wicked smile made Mary falter once more. "Okay, but be quick. What is it?"
"Remember what we were talking about last week? About the birds and the bees?"
"This again, Lucas? We took vows!" Mary protested, turning her back on the charming boy. "And anyway, its yucky and gross and...and...and..."
Mary's objections trailed off as Lucas took a step up behind her. Even through the thick cloth of the choir robes, she could feel the reassuring firmness of his body, smell the musky scent of his flesh, feel the warmth of his breath against her sensitive nape.
"We found a way to make it okay."
"We?" Mary asked, breathily.
At that moment, Lucas' older brother Mike, ducked into the room. Mary turned at the noise and found herself face to face with Lucas.
"Hey Mary," called Mike casually.
"What's he doing here?" Mary hissed.
Lucas' older brother had always been a wild child. One of the bad eggs, her father would warn, usually proceeding one of his sternly worded lectures about keeping well clear of bad boys and their wicked desires.
"He's back from university for the holidays. And he's going to teach us to, y'know, do it."
"Do what?"
"Bump uglies, knock boots, take a little horizontal refreshment!" Mike laughed.
"Ew! No! Even if I wanted to, which I obviously don't, it's not allowed. It's a sin."
"It's only a sin if we do the action!" Lucas explained, "Mike found a loophole!"
"What...what do you mean?" Mary stammered, feeling an inexplicable heat rising in her body.
"It's called soaking," Mike explained, "All the church kids do it at uni. Lucas puts his thing in your coochee but, and here's the kicker, he doesn't move. Not an inch."
"But then...how does...I don't..." Mary blushed, her obvious inexperience compared to the two brothers making her feel silly and childish.
