For The Love Of Christ

It's an incredibly short ferry ride. Thirty seconds. The time spent lining up, boarding, offloading and making their way to and from the gate adds another forty minutes. Everyone around Jane looks familiar. The 30-something couple with the man who makes direct eye contact with Jane while his girlfriend, maybe wife, cracks open a Tupperware container of homemade yogurty muesli and frantically stirs, folds and caresses the muck with an enviro friendly portable bamboo spoon. She's sure she knows them from somewhere. High school? The gym? Did they date? Did she date the woman? Oh, college. The two women in line directly in front of Jane have spread out across the aisle in the middle of the boat, blocking a heavy set young Italian woman from making her way to the exterior deck of the ferry. She has to sandwich her way between two pillars of immoveable flesh in tweed and cotton. They're either angry old lesbians or nuns. Jane can't decide. Matching high waisted khakis with braided leather belts, button down shirts, no nonsense glasses and short unflattering haircuts. Modest jewellery but jewellery none the less. Jane tries to remember if nuns still wear a band on their ring finger to symbolize their marriage to Christ. If they are nuns, the taller blonder one in the pink and white plaid is having a rather rough day. Not very Christ like, shoulder checking another passenger as she tries to get some fresh air. Jane fantasized about becoming a nun when she was a young girl. Too much Sound Of Music. Years of Catholic school and Craig Blais in the seventh grade chased that notion out of her hormonally ecstatic self. She wanted more than a blue and white habit with no makeup. The fact she was into boys by eleven years old should have been a dead giveaway. Had she seen plainclothes nuns way back then she might have been persuaded to ponder the decision a year or two longer. Maybe even try a convent on for a semester or two. Her love of fashion and boys and girls and sex and lust and bad choices beat out her obsession with Jesus, redemption, resurrection and progressive Christian rock music. Just in time for prom. Thank god.

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