The Forbidden Staircase Ch. 20

Chapter Twenty: Mary's Absolution

Mary Jones sat in a confessional booth. Her hair was cropped even shorter than usual due to the torments of the Forbidden Staircase, but otherwise she was unscathed by her recent adventure, except perhaps morally. Confession was one of three reasons for this church visit. She said, "Bless me father, for I have sinned."

Father McDonald, their local priest, sat in the other side of the booth. "Tell me about your sins, child," he asked with interest. "But before that, I want to thank you for coming to address our young men's meeting and enrolling them all in visiting and helping to take care of your friend Grandma Petra. It's a great work of charity that I'm sure will be helpful to Grandma Petra and will educate and open the hearts of our young men as well." This had been the second reason for Mary's visit.

"Knowing Grandma Petra, I'm quite certain you're right about this, father," Mary agreed, then began her story. "Well, father, it all started when a man came to our door a while back to threaten my father. He began to rape our housekeeper, Margaret. I intervened and had him rape me instead. He didn't finish in me, though. I kicked him out first."

"Child, what a horrific experience for you to bear on your young body, and for your housekeeper as well. I would say you did the work of God in protecting your servant from this scourge of a man. Surely, this is not a sin, but a blessing. You're absolved. I hope this terrible man will receive just punishment."

"Oh he is, father," said Mary, "twenty to life. But that's not the sin I'm talking about. Then, my friend Imogene and her Aunt Selene came over with a new mystery for me to solve. They were desperate, father, and fearing they were being tormented by ghosts. To solve the mystery, I had to hypnotize them, with their consent, of course, and have them take off all their clothing. I could see from the condition of their privates that they were being tormented by real live men."

"I admit your method was unorthodox, but effective," Father McDonald judged. "Doctors examine victims of sexual abuse all the time, why not detectives? God can forgive this."

"That's not the sin. Then my father arrived home and saw the naked bodies of these women in our parlor. Then, to prove to myself that my friend Immy was actually experienced and not a virgin as she asserted, I had her perform oral sex, while still under hypnosis mind you, on my father."

"That's questionable," remarked Father McDonald. "Ten Hail Marys."

"Gladly, but that's not the sin, father. After that, I met with Sheriff Barton again and sucked him off under the table of a booth in the back of Wilson's Diner."

"Now Mary, we've talked about your dalliances with Sheriff Barton before," scolded Father McDonald. "You must resist the sins of the flesh even though you never intend to marry because of your career. Given your choice to remain single, you must abstain from sex to be virtuous."

"But I've been thinking about this, father," said Mary. "It seems to me that denying one's sexual urges, given you're being helpful and not hurtful in your sexual acts, is denying your God-given humanity, denying the organs of pleasure God has clearly given every one of us. Good sex literally gives us all life, both from the joy it brings us and the babies it brings us from time to time. A rational and educated man like you can't deny that this incontrovertible fact is written by God in the very structure of each of our bodies, the pleasure our bodies give us, and the critical role sex is designed to play in our very existence."

Father McDonald stammered, "Well, Mary, I'm sure there is some merit in your argument, but-"

Mary continued, "Also, it seems to me that the church's motives regarding sex are highly questionable. If sex and therefore pleasure is key, then women are also key, since we are by design the crux of pleasure and life as we bear the children that create us all. This directly contradicts the patriarchal teachings of the church. No wonder the church wants us to deny pleasure, and indeed by doing so, life itself. Facts, if they are available, must hold over conjecture, however traditional, and especially self-serving conjecture, don't you agree father?"

"I can't fault your reasoning at first glance, Mary," said the thoughtful cleric. "Let me think on this. Clearly nobody is being hurt by your interactions with Sheriff Barton for the time being, so why don't we revisit this subject once I've had a chance to think more about your argument."

"Thank you, father. But I do want to correct you there. After both Edna and myself performed oral sex on the sheriff and on each other and both fucked the sheriff, we all met up later, and the sheriff handcuffed Edna and me to tables and whipped us and teased us to countless orgasms. It hurt so good, but we were definitely hurt, though not permanently."

"Since it was part of a pleasurable experience," reasoned Father McDowell, "I suppose we can set it aside along with the whole thing about you and Sheriff Barton."

"Fair enough, but that wasn't the sin I was talking about anyway. To further investigate the case, I performed oral sex on both my friend Imogene and her Aunt Selene."

"Well as long as they are single women and it was all consensual, we can put it in the Barton column for now," reasoned the priest.

"Well, Selene was reluctant, but in the end, she asked me to pleasure her the rest of the way to orgasm, so that counts for something."

"Okay," said Father McDowell, "One Hail Mary for now, just for the reluctance part."

"Gladly accepted, father," said Mary, "but that's still not the sin I'm talking about. From there I took Imogene to a hallway with holes into a gentlemen's restroom in a pub in Xylophone. There the two of us took on countless men through the aforementioned holes with our mouths, my cunt, and Imogene's asshole. Some of the men, I'm sure, were married. Some of the men were undoubtedly Protestants or even Jewish."

"Since under the circumstances you could clearly not discriminate between married and unmarried men, one Hail Mary. As for the religious affiliations of the men, our country is founded on freedom of religion, and no loyal citizen of our great nation should ever discriminate on that basis, no matter what the Pope says," reasoned the priest.

"That's still not the sin I am getting to," said Mary. "Then we met a very nice deaf and dumb boy from the circus and used my knowledge of sign language to communicate with him and lend him aid."

"I don't understand, Mary," said Father McDonald. "That's a kind and generous act."

"Then we all fucked him."

"Oh Mary," said the priest, doing a face palm. "Barton column."

"But that's not the sin!" said Mary immediately.

"Why am I not surprised?" grimaced the clergyman.

"Then I met a nice sheriff's deputy Barton sent to guard the place," said Mary.

"And had sex with him," filled in the priest.

"Only a blowjob, father," Mary corrected.

"Well, that's something."

"Until later, that is," said Mary.

Father McDonald sighed. "Barton column. But that's not the sin, I bet. Well, get to it," the father said impatiently.

"And then we threw a giant party that turned into an all-night orgy, and I fucked over a dozen men, some of whom I knew to be married," Mary recounted.

"One Hail Mary for each married man," said the father. "Although the sin is mostly theirs, you bear some responsibility to respect the sanctity of marriage."

"One of the unmarried men was my father," Mary confessed.

'Whoa," said Father McDonald.

"Exactly. And THAT'S the sin," said Mary. "Except I didn't know at first because he entered me from behind. I only found out when I turned around."

"Well, then, it was merely accidental child," the father sighed in relief. "One Hail Mary for offering yourself to unknown men, though. That can't be right. The rest is Barton column."

"But then I let him continue after I knew, because all the most powerful men in the state were watching us and openly masturbating, and I feared for his career if we were exposed," admitted Mary.

"That's more serious, child," the priest insisted.

"And I want to do it again," said Mary.

"Child, this simply can't be moral in any world view," Father McDonald argued.

"What would it take to convince you otherwise?" asked Mary.

An hour later, in Father McDonald's private quarters, Mary rose from his bed, leaving a gently snoring and very sexually satisfied Father McDowell to rest. He had done okay for not having had sex since he became a priest twenty years ago, the poor man. He had been very enthusiastic, which Mary liked better than anything. She had made him go twice since he didn't last very long the first time. This initially mystified him, but he quickly rallied when she demonstrated her oral skills. Hopefully, Mary could arrange to work off her penance under him frequently.

Now for her third reason for visiting church. She sat down at Father McDowell's desk, pulled out a sheet of church letterhead, and began writing.

"Dear James and Margaret,"

"Since that evening, I have thought and dreamed constantly of our time together. I dreamed of you, James, instinctively knowing how to bring me to the heights of pleasure over and over, and how you, Margaret, brought me to even higher heights in ways I had never for a moment considered and which still, at this writing, make me blush."

"Please understand my need to protect my identity so that I can continue my good works for the sake of the community we all love. As you asked me to arrange, I will arrive at your doorstep in disguise at exactly eight o'clock on this coming Tuesday evening. I'm hoping we will be able to spend an enjoyable evening together."

"Much Love,"

" 'Mary' (not my real name)"

(The end)