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"Søren can put the fear of God into a sub by just showing up," Griffin said with barely concealed envy
"I know I love that round kinky community, no one commanded more respect or fear than Søren Soone into the church and not theabout Mick," Griffin said, folding the checklist back up
"Mick?"
"That’s what I’ him Michael has tooabout Mick?"
Griffin rolled onto his side and met Nora eye to eye He reached out and freed her hair from her black hair clip and caressed her face and neck Bad, Nora thought It had to be bad news if Griffin was buttering her up
"It’s just, and don’t freak out," Griffin said, opening her shirt, pulling the strap of her bra down and taking one of her niles into his war now," she said, leaning back to give him better access to her brsts "Tell me the freak-out part while I’m turned on"
Griffin slid his hand under her skirt between her thighs; he slipped a finger under her panties and inside her
"It’s just, the thing about Mick is," Griffin said as he pressed a second finger into her ariven hi His skateboard, wheels up, he’d packed on top of his things and that caretted bringing it Nora kneas a skater, but Griffin didn’t Surely so childish Michael sat the board on the floor and rolled it under the bed
He unpacked his clothes--jeans and T-shirts, boxer shorts, socks, the usual--and tucked the his rather ratty clothes inside furniture that probably costonce , Michael found his ht after he’dSacred Heart, Michael heard rumors that the writer Nora Sutherlin attended that same church years before she’d become the Nora Sutherlin One day at the mall he’d snuck off to the Borders store and found a copy of her book The Red The cover had a picture of a woman’s wrists tied with a bloodred silk ribbon He re that his eyes had started to water But there was no way they’d let a thirteen-year-old buy a book like that He thought about stealing it, but even the idea of shoplifting uilt He found a fantasy novel about kings and unicorns that was the same price and size as The Red and he switched the covers He didn’t need the cover The ie of the tied wrists had burned into his retinas When he looked at it, looked at those tied wrists and pale hands, he couldn’t help but iine his orists and own hands It spoke to hiht, when he first gazed on the iht the book and took it hoht reading it He stayed up all the next night reading it again
When Father Stearns started counseling him after his suicide attee to ask him about Nora, who Father S called Eleanor For some reason the first question that came out was, "Is she pretty?"
Father Stearns answered, "Michael, Eleanor is without a doubt the most beautiful wohttime thunderstorood idea what she looks like And a fairly good idea how she behaves as well," he’d said and s tiht, how they made the whole house shiver with the force of the wind and the rain and how they broke the sky open hite light After a long silence his priest had paused and turned to hi moment "Would you like to o one entire year without har himself in any way--no burns, no bruises, no cuts, no suicides attee for him and Nora Sutherlin to meet Elevenhootten a new job after the divorce was finalized It paid better than her old job but it s She didn’t like leaving Michael home by himself Father S had offered to stay late at church on those days so Michael wouldn’t be alone
A Monday night, a school night, he rey the next day He heard Father S on the phone with so It sounded as though he was speaking French He did that souage that sounded maybe like Swedish to Michael, but which he later learned was Danish Michael heard Father S hang up the phone When his priest eain
"She would do her homework out here too," he’d said without preamble Michael didn’t have to ask who "she" was "You could always tell when she orking on her math homework"
"How could you tell?" Michael had asked