My Last Confession (c) Allyson Romani (2017) I stood at the back of the huge sanctuary, smoothed my skirt, fussed with my hair. Late afternoon sun streamed through the high stained glass windows, and seemed to illuminate the whole of the room's iconography in a way that might most effectively, do what exactly? Challenge me? Mock me? Frighten me? Condemn me? All of the above. How long I stood I couldn't know. Anyone who saw would have thought I'd come alone. That I hadn't, they couldn't know. ----------- Time sometimes swirls into whirlpools. The when of things becomes lost when the why of them feels the need to rearrange events to assert some cosmological point of order. "We need to retake the ultrasound." "Why? Is something wrong?" ---------- The day I went to the clinic, all time stood still. All past and future compressed into a point. Park. Go inside. Taken to the room. "Wear this, Miss.". An injection. "This isn't your fault," the doctor said. "Where did the genes come from?", I asked. He gave no answer. ----------- Slowly I made my way to the corner. Genuflected crossing the center aisle as I'd been taught. In the alcove I lit a candle. Pressed ten dollars into the box. The confessional awaited like the executioner's gallows. Yet it beckoned. Something I must confront. This is where I will fall. This is where I will ascend. Or neither. I stepped inside, closed the door, and waited. "What brings you here today, My Child?" He expected "Bless me Father, for I have sinned." He didn't get it. "Father, when I leave here today I'm going to kill My Child." In his long silence I could hear only the air escaping from the room. All evacuated into empty space. An emergency decompression sucking everything through the gaping hole in my reality. All the stained glass shattered and rang down in shards around us, the sound echoing for hours. I spoke again, "How can you help me?" Standing on uncertain ground, he said only, "You mustn't have these thoughts, My Child." "They are not my thoughts, Father. My child is dying inside me. So they say. And I'm told that if I don't do this, I shall die. They say she most likely won't last to term. And if I go on, it may kill me, too. Or they might be wrong. So they say." "I think, in this case, My Child, you must take the advice of your doctors. It's a painful choice. The Lord will forgive..." The long silence this time echoed from my side of the confessional. Had I really heard what I just heard? From a Priest? My choice? Permission to Kill? "Thank you for your time, Father. My soul understands it's on its own." And without a blessing I stood, opened the door, stepped out, began to walk quickly to the front of the church. A hand grabbed my wrist and turned me. "No, Father, I can see you have nothing to help me." Pulled my arm away, ran out the door, tried not to cry again. ---------- The doctor tried to be gentle, but all I heard was: "You must never let this happen to you again. It would most likely turn out the same." ---------- The lights cut into me, "It shouldn't be so bright, the nurses shouldn't smile," I thought. How long since I came in? The doctor spoke in soothing tones. His words sounded like the hiss of a snake. I felt a pinch and a low pain. It lasted forever. Deep inside the knife cut, and the dying within me pierced my heart. Then it was still, and I was empty.. ---------- "We'll let you recover for a while until you feel well enough to go," one of them said. "You're fine. It's over, Everything was normal." I glared, felt flames shoot from my eyes. "Normal? It will never be normal, never over." ---------- My friend drove me home. We passed the church. "Stop, let me out. Wait here for me please." "No," she said, you should stay away from here for a while." "Stop, Let me go in. I have to go in." She did. And I did. ----------- Another candle. Another ten dollars. Genuflect. ----------- "Why have you come, My Child?" "To say goodbye, Father. You are a hypocrite, your church a fraud. I'll never step inside it again. I came for courage, not absolution. With courage I'd have needed no absolution. Without it, I need absolution that can never be given. Nothing can wash this stain from me. No ten dollar confession can save my soul." Stepped out of the confessional into the freezing cold. His second-thought stuttering faded in the distance behind, ".... pray for you..... the soul of your child... your great loss.... " "I'll find a real man of God. Goodbye" ---------- That church echoed only with the sound of my footsteps leaving for the last time, then it was silent.
I agonized for a long time about writing this story about the most wrenching moments of my life. I know I’m far too poor a writer to convey the surrealism of it and the utter defeat I felt. I hope only that some of it comes through.
I’ll write more in coming days and weeks. Thank you for indulging me. Please leave a comment with your thoughts.
Your story really grabbed my attention…you did a great job considering all you faced! God wanted you to know He was and is there ALWAYS. He is our true source in triumph and in pain…it is that way by design. You were seeking supernatural everything in this situation!! Eveeyday forward is an opportunity to heal by the power of the Holy Spirit…ALL of this you can without strings leave at the Cross. I pray this pushes you forward!! Be blessed
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Thank you so much for reading. If others can feel even a little of what I felt then I did a good thing here.
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I am not one to read just for the heck of it…my desire is to push people forward into God! If the two of you would want to Skype sometime I would be open to that.
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