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"You know, all I ever wanted was a daughter who loves God, goes to church, respects her priest and maybe even respects her mother a little You think that’s too ht about the question one whole entire second before answering

"Yup"

Once herlot, Elle juo to church, but she wasn’t about to sit with her at church

Elle entered the sanctuary and took a seat on the Gospel side--the left side of the church facing the altar A visiting priest had explained the difference between the Gospel side and the Epistle side, or right side, a long tiht everyone that Amen was best translated as "so be it" That had surprised her Until hiht Amen meant "over and out"

Her usual pew had already filled up by the ti beneath her favorite stained-glass , she had to sit on the aisle That was okay She’d be able to get a better look at the new priest from here And if she didn’t like the looks of him, she could "accidentally" step on the train of his vestments Oops

She wormed her way out of her jacket, picked up her s Fro of Sleeping Beauty and slid it in between the pages She’d heard so over a copy of it One of them had stolen it from her older sister Gross, they said Nasty, they said So dirty They couldn’t believe people actually did this, they said So of course Elle stole a copy of it fro, she still hadn’t figured out why those girls in her class had called the book gross and nasty Elle had fallen in love with the story of sexual slavery in a fairy-tale world of kings and queens Even better, the main character--Beauty--was only fifteen, like her Fifteen plus that one hundred years she’d been sleeping under the spell Maybe Elle was also under a spell and didn’t know it Maybe she’d fallen asleep and everything happening was a dream, a bad dream where her father was a thief and her hter Maybe so and kiss her and make love to her, and she’d wake up to discover she’d been a queen all along

As Elle turned a page the bells rang She closed her books and rose to her feet

A hyan

Elle looked back to the door of the sanctuary, and saw the new priest

The dream ended The spell was broken

Elle woke up

5

Eleanor

STRIDING DOWN THE AISLE BEHIND THE CRUCIFER and the deacon was a od’s face He looked forith eyes so serious and soleaze to the altar to see if Jesus waited for him there

As he stepped past her pew he turned his head and met her eyes for the briefest of eternities The book within her missal fell from her hand and fluttered to the floor She didn’t bend to pick it up It lay there, forgotten, as forgotten as everyone and everything else in this world Everyone and everything else but this man who now mounted the steps to the altar and stood before the church

Underneath the collar of his vestments she saw the hint of black with the white square