Shuffling Freddie

He lifted her to her feet and she stepped out of the last of her clothing. "You have a fine and beautiful body." Theresa raised the cassock over his head and he stood before her as naked as she. She ran her hands through the fine hairs on his chest and down over his stomach to his penis. Father Patrick led her to the lounge and she sat down. Moving between her legs he was once more licking her clitoris and his finger was inside her.

"Please, I must know more." She whimpered. The moment had arrived and he placed his penis into the entrance to her vagina and moved it slowly in and out, never going far enough to touch her hymen. She timed it to perfection, as he pushed into her she grabbed his hips and pushed down on his erect penis as hard as she could. He felt the hymen break. "Ow!" A quick reaction to the momentary pain and she held him to her, deep within her, for some time before she pulled back a short distance then pushed down once more.

"No. We must stop, this is all wrong." Father Patrick was aware of the repercussions of continuing.

"We can't stop now, I don't want you to stop now, I want to know it all. I want you to make love to me all the way."

Father Patrick went all the way, and it wasn't until after he had withdrawn his spent penis from her that he asked the fatal question; "Tell me, when did your last period end?"

"About a week ago, why?"

"Jesus, Joseph and Mary. Remember what I said about keeping track of your menstrual cycle, well you are in your fertile period and it is very likely that you will fall pregnant."

"What are we going to do if I am?"

"You will say nothing about this to anyone and, after your honeymoon you'll tell everyone that you must have got pregnant on your honeymoon and when it arrives earlier than it should, that the baby is premature."

"But that would be lying wouldn't it?"

"There are times when you just have to lie. You want to marry Fred don't you?"

"Yes, you know I do."

"And Fred, he has never been with another woman has he?"

"No."

"So if he found out that you and I had, you know, he'd be very upset wouldn't he?"

"Yes."

"Then he mustn't know, must he?"

"No."

It was a good plan while it lasted, but Theresa's mother had, since she had reached puberty, kept a watchful eye for signs of menstruation and when this didn't happen after Theresa and Father Patrick's love making she began to ask questions.

"Theresa, have you and Fred been going off on your own before the wedding?"

"No."

"The how do you explain why you've not got your monthlies?"

"I don't know."

"Tell me you haven't been with another man."

"I . . ."

"You stupid girl! How could you do that so close to your wedding day? Tell me who was it?" Theresa sat with her head bowed in shame, but said nothing. "Oh no, it can't be, tell me you haven't been doing it with Father Patrick? You know what people say about him and women?" Theresa still said nothing. "You told me that you were going to him for spiritual help with your marriage and you let him have his wicked way with you. Did you never stop to think about what could happen?"

"It just happened, he was telling me about how to please Fred after we were married and he said he could explain it better if he showed me and," she sobbed, "it just happened."

"These things don't just happen, one or both of you must have wanted it to happen. Him wanting it I can understand but you, how could you be so stupid as to want it from him. You have brought shame on our family." The truth eventually came out and she agreed to go along with their story. A hastily called conference between Theresa's parents and Father Patrick was called and the repercussions of their betrayal of Fred were discussed.

A plan was hatched for Fred to be seduced on his Bucks night so that he would feel guilty and be coerced into going along with their scheme.

The Saturday before the wedding some of Fred's mates took him to Smithton for his 'Bucks night'. One of the lads had a friend who arranged for them to use the back room of the hotel. There was a lot of beer drunk and a lot of rowdiness until at around ten o'clock a young and willing local girl was introduced into the group. She sat on Fred's lap and tried to kiss him but he wasn't about to let her. "You are a very nice girl I'm sure, and I don't know how these guys talked you into doing this, but I'm getting married next week and I'm not going to betray my fiancé by misbehaving. I'm sorry to disappoint you."

"Come on Fred," Charlie, his best man, encouraged him, "no-one will tell Theresa, your secret's safe with us." This brought laughter from the others.

"No! I won't do it!" And with that he got up, left the room, his mates and the girl, who had already begun the task, for which she had been paid, with Charlie, and walked the ten miles (sixteen kilometres) to his home.

The next day Fred and Theresa were standing, hand in hand chatting, with their families and friends outside the church after Mass. It was a bright and sunny day, picture postcard perfect in almost every way. Fred's mates chided him about his leaving the party early and comment was passed about the performance of the young lady. Fred shut his ears to their talk. As the parishioners were leaving Father Patrick spoke to Fred. "Would you come into the vestry, I have something to discuss with you." Intrigued Fred followed him and Theresa into the vestry.

"I understand Fred that there was a young lady at your Bucks night last night, is that true?"

"Yes and she seemed a nice enough young lady. I don't know what she was doing there."

"And you and she got friendly?"

"She was friendly but I wasn't interested in her, all I could think of was what would Theresa say if I did something that I shouldn't have." The look on Father Patrick's face said it all; the bait was good but the prey failed to take it. They would have to rely on Fred's forgiveness to get out of this.

"Fred. Fred, I have something to tell you and a favour to ask of you."

"What is it Father?"

"This is hard. . . . Fred, Theresa is with child."

"What!" He looked at his fiancé who sat, head bowed, beside him. "Theresa, tell me this isn't true!"

"I'm so sorry Darling, we didn't mean for this to happen."

"What do you mean 'we'?" He stared from one to the other and became apparent to him that Father Patrick was the man with whom she was with child. "You don't mean, oh no, how, no it's not possible that you and, tell me it's not true, please tell me it's not true."

"It is true Fred." Father Patrick placed his hand on Fred's shoulder. Fred shrugged it off. "And this leads me to the favour we have to ask you. We want you to go ahead with the wedding and look on this child as your own, will you do that?"

"No! I won't be a part of your betrayal. Theresa, you knew that I have been saving myself for you, yet you betrayed me, and you Father Patrick, you've not only betrayed me, but you've betrayed your own vows of celibacy, how could you?"

"I'm sorry, what can I say, it just happened."

"Please Fred, you know I love you, won't you do this for me, for us?"

"How can you even think that I'd do this? I loved you and kept myself pure for you, even when I was tempted last night at my Bucks party, I resisted the temptation to have sex with another woman. I'm sorry but I just can't do this. I feel betrayed, let down by the woman I loved and the priest that I trusted." Fred got up and left the vestry.

That evening his parents and Theresa's parents sat with him and pleaded with him to reconsider. "It wasn't Theresa's fault that this happened. Three months ago she went to Father Patrick for advice about her life married to you, she wanted so much for your lives to be perfect in every way, can't you see that?"

"I bet he was a good teacher, he taught her that much that now she's pregnant with his child, and you want me to still marry her and tell everyone that the child is mine. I will not lie for you. I will not lie for him and I won't even lie for her. As far as I'm concerned they have made a mistake and they'll just have to live with that for the rest of their lives. Now would you all leave me alone. I don't want to listen to you any more and I don't want to see you any more."

"But we are taught by the church and it's in the Lords Prayer that we pray for God to forgive our sins as we forgive others, so don't you think that you should forgive them?"

"I cannot forgive the hypocrisy of a priest who tells us that we shouldn't sin and he does this? What kind of church would stand for that behaviour?"

"I can understand you being upset, so don't you think about it until you calm down, then decide what you are going to do?"

"You aren't listening to me! I've made up my mind and I want you to leave me alone."

I looked at this woman as she told this story and wondered if there was anything that could be done for this poor man. "So what happened then?"

"Fred locked himself in his room and emerged only to go to the toilet for a full week. The following Sunday when the parishioners arrived for early Mass there was no sign of Father Patrick, nor was there any sign of Theresa. They had run off together. This caused a certain amount of conjecture in the community and rumours concerning Father Patrick's marriage preparation teaching spread like wildfire and many a husband found himself wondering about his wife."

"On the following morning Fred got out of bed early and, putting on his heavy black overcoat over his black suit, doing up his tie and putting on his hat, he set off down the road to Smithton and back, speaking to no-one, acknowledging no-one. This was to be his routine for the next thirty years up to the present time. The local people said he was crazy, that he had lost his mind because of his heartbreak, and in this they were probably right, but they could never be sure because he refused all attempts by them to help him in any way."

"What happened to Theresa and Father Patrick?"

"I would like to say that they lived happily ever after, unfortunately that wasn't the case. They lived together until after she had her daughter Siobhan, but he was no longer a priest, he had been forced to resign, so they had little money to live on, and his drinking became progressively worse until she left him and returned home long enough to convince her mother that the best thing would be for her to look after the baby. She left the child with her parents and moved to Sydney. The last anyone heard of her was that she was living with a man who was a drunk and abused her, and that she was working as a prostitute to try to get enough money together to leave him, but he took her money for drink."

"And the baby, what happened to her, how did she turn out?"

"I think I turned out pretty well."

Post script: I have been visiting Siobhan for the past six months and things are developing (photographer's pun, sorry) quite nicely. We had just woken up when the phone rang. She got up to answer it and when she returned her expression was sad.

"What is it?"

"That was Mr Bridges down the road. When Fred didn't shuffle past as usual he thought that something was wrong and went to check up on him. Fred died in his sleep and he had clutched to his chest an old photograph in a badly worn frame. It was of Theresa, my mother."