{"id":797,"date":"2019-01-31T01:44:14","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T01:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/?p=797"},"modified":"2019-01-25T01:47:03","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T01:47:03","slug":"absolution-in-her-red-eyes-by-nicole-efford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2019\/01\/31\/absolution-in-her-red-eyes-by-nicole-efford\/","title":{"rendered":"Absolution in Her Red Eyes by Nicole Efford"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nicole Efford is a senior at the College of William and Mary, majoring in English and minoring in Creative Writing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolution in Her Red Eyes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mara helps her\nmother out of the pew, hoping nobody will notice them slipping out before the\nend of service. She\u2019d realized her mom was high when she came back from the\nbathroom, ten minutes into service, with eyes red and half-closed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHope, hi. How are you?\u201d Todd Baker whispers, blocking the door. His hair is pomaded high on his head\u2014reaching for Jesus, Mara thinks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She smiles innocently and says, \u201cMy mom\u2019s not feeling too well right now. I should be getting her home.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd\u2019s eyes linger\non Hope\u2019s arm, and then meet her eyes. She stares back at him, unblinking, then\ndrawls, \u201cYou are a sinner.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He chuckles and\nshakes his head, \u201cWell, we all are. But Jesus absolved us, Hope, you know\nthat.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMom, c\u2019mon.\u201d Mara says as she tugs on her mother\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably a\ngood idea, Mara. Do you need any help getting her to the car?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope watches the\nman grow a red tail, then jabs her finger into Todd\u2019s face and shouts, \u201cGet\naway from my daughter!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMom, stop!\u201d Mara grabs Hope\u2019s hand and pushes past the exit. \u201cShe\u2019s really not feeling herself!\u201d she calls over her shoulder, rushing toward the parking lot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mara gets in their\ncar but Hope does not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a demon in her car\u2014Hope knows it. God has visited her and He has given her the power to detect evil. Hope stares as the demon in the driver\u2019s seat grows two red horns. It is talking to her but she cannot understand; she has too much Heaven within her to speak to children of Hell. She shakes her head at the demon, \u201cI will not go with you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mara stares at her mother in disbelief. \u201cYou need to come with me. How else are you going to get home?\u201d She lowers her voice so nobody around the church will hear, \u201cYou can\u2019t go walking the streets doped up, mom. Get in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mara\u2019s words get through to her mother, and Hope recognizes that the demon in her car is her daughter. The demon pleads again, \u201cPlease, mom, let me just take you home and get you to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou are not my child anymore,\u201d Hope spits. She gets on her knees and pulls the cross up from around her neck to ward away the demon. \u201cYou, child of the Devil\u2014with the power of God the Almighty, I banish you back to Hell!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mara glares at her\nmother, and then notices the silence surrounding them. She looks in the\nrearview mirror: Service has ended and people from church are staring. \u201cI\u2019m\nsorry, mom,\u201d Mara says. She backs out of the spot, slowly, so that she doesn\u2019t\nhit her. She puts the car in drive, and leaves her mother in the parking lot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope gets off her\nknees and tucks her necklace back under her cardigan. The Devil has gone. She\nhas saved her church. She smiles, sits back on the parking lot ground, and\nsmiles up at the sky. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nicole Efford is a senior at the College of William and Mary, majoring in English and minoring in Creative Writing. Absolution in Her Red Eyes Mara helps her mother out of the pew, hoping nobody will notice them slipping out before the end of service. She\u2019d realized her mom was high when she came back … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-cR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":799,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions\/799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}