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"Please?"

Almost nineNo wonder she drea And Kyrieshe wanted her This young virginal

"You’re a nun" Elle took Kyrie’s hand but only to hold it "If we do this--"

"I’m just a starter nun"

"It’s called a novice, not a starter nun"

"You knohat I mean I don’t take final vows for two years," Kyrie said "I want to knohat I’ up"

Elle closed her eyes and shook her head

Somewhere out there, far in the distance, she heard a sound she thought she would never hear

"Can you hear that?" Elle asked

"No, what is it?"

"God laughing at me"

Elle opened her eyes

Then she stood up

She pushed her chair under the doorknob

Kyrie was already on the bed, her hair down and unbound She was a vision of loveliness and innocence And Elle wanted her Wanted her as she’d never wanted a woman before in her life But she wasn’t a woirl, chaste and pure, and she’d never even been kissed The hunger to be the first lips on Kyrie’s lips was physical in its urgency Elle wanted hers to be the first hands on Kyrie’s body But even ain what she felt those nights with Kingsley, the nights he’d let her hurt hiain

She needed to own this girl, body and soul In two years, Kyrie would take her final vows In two years, her beautiful long hair would be shorn to the scalp In two years the door on Kyrie’s life would lock and it would never be opened again Kyrie would never be opened again

Innocence had its virtues, but ignorance had none To let this beautiful girl walk away fro tasted the pleasure it offered was more than a crime It was a sin A sha?" Elle asked, seeing Kyrie’s head bowed The starlight ustine" Kyrie looked up at Elle and met her eyes in the dark "Lord, make me chaste"

Elle finished the prayer for her

"But not yet"

21

Haiti

"WHO WAS SCARED?"

Kingsley closed his eyes Juliette’s voice carried over the air and the waves and the water on the sand It carried over the beach like the signal of a lighthouse to a ship lost at sea

"No one" He shoved the length of carved bone into his pocket He turned and found her standing ten feet behind hi to ?" She walked on bare feet across the sand to hi like that"

"To God?"

"To a man," he said "A man who thinks he’s God sometimes But he can’t be God, can he? Not if he’s scared"