Blood of the Lamb Read Online Free Page A

up, she said, “Mom says caffeine and chocolate make me hyper.”
    I was struck again by the way she spoke. Like her straightened hair and preppy dress, the only thing about her that was black was her skin—and it was very light. Was it just the inevitable byproduct of being adopted by Caucasian parents, or were Bobby Earl and Bunny consciously raising her to be white?
    “CHAPLAIN,” one of the ladies from the business office yelled from down the hall. “THERE’S A CALL FOR YOU. ARE YOU UP HERE?”
    “TRANSFER IT TO THE CONFERENCE ROOM, PLEASE,” I called. “THANKS.”
    I picked up the phone almost the moment it rang.
    “I thought you were gonna come see me this afternoon,” Anna said.
    “I got a better offer,” I said.
    Watching Nicole color so intently, I realized again just how stunning she was and how wrong it was for her to be here.
    “Rumor has it you’re with another woman,” she said.
    “Why don’t you come see for yourself?”
    Though she never looked up, Nicole leaned toward me slightly, turning her ear in my direction, and began to color with less enthusiasm, and I could tell she was listening to our conversation.
    “I think I will,” Anna said, and hung up.
    When she arrived a few minutes later, I made the proper introductions.
    “It’s nice to meet you,” Nicole said to Anna, then turning to me, asked, “Is she your girlfriend?”
    “Only in my dreams,” I said.
    “You’re silly,” she said again.
    “May we color with you?” Anna asked.
    “Sure,” Nicole said. “I have a whole book of pictures.”
    She let each of us tear a page from her book and told us to help ourselves to her crayons.
    “Thanks for being so generous,” Anna said.
    “It’s more blessed to give than receive,” she said.
    “So I’ve heard,” Anna said, smiling at me.
    “Sprite doesn’t have caffeine,” Nicole said.
    Unaware of my previous offer and Nicole’s response, Anna smiled at what she thought was the typical non sequitur of a small child. “No, it doesn’t,” she said.
    “A Sprite it is then,” I said. “Anna?”
    “No, thank you,” Anna said, continuing to color, “ I’m starving for my art.”
    As I was walking from the room, Nicole said, “Chips don’t have chocolate.”
    When I returned with the Sprite and chips from the vending machine, seeing Anna and Nicole together, I wondered what it would be like to have children with such a woman. Though aware of and attentive to Nicole like I had yet to see Bunny be, she had thrown herself into coloring her masterpiece with the same childlike abandon Nicole had.
    “Thank you, Chaplain JJ,” Nicole said, as I popped the top and opened the bag for her.
    “My pleasure,” I said.
    After a few chips and sips, she looked up at Anna and said, “You should marry him. I’m gonna marry a preacher.”
    “If she were my wife,” I said, “I might just get my own TV show.”
    “My mom’s pretty,” she said.
    “She sure is,” Anna said.
    Before I could say anything, the phone rang again and I picked it up.
    “Chaplain Jordan, this is Kate at the switchboard. An inmate in A-dorm just tried to commit suicide and they need you down there right away.”
    I stood as I placed the receiver back in the cradle.
    “I’ve gotta go to A-dorm,” I said. “Can you stay with Nicole until her parents get back?”
    “Sure,” she said. “What is it?”
    “Attempted suicide.”
    She nodded.
    “Call me if you need anything.”
    Without looking up from her work, Nicole said, “We’ll pray for you, Chaplain JJ.”
    They were the last words she ever said to me, and their simplicity and sincerity would haunt me long after she was dead.

C HAPTER 5
     
    That night when I reached the chapel, Bunny and Nicole were singing “Consider the Lilies.” Bobby Earl looked on with pride from his seat on the platform, and it was disconcerting to see him sitting in the chair I had come to think of as mine.
    Crisis counseling wasn’t something that could be