CHAPTER 40-1
640 Words
CHAPTER 40
The water was warmer than Mee-Kyong expected and almost scalded her leg when she first stepped in. She gasped.
“Is it all right?” Mrs. Stern was out of her fancy chair and to the side of the tub in half a second.
“I’m fine.” Mee-Kyong forced a smile, if only to make up for her comments earlier when Mrs. Stern had tried to help her get ready. She hadn’t intended to lose her composure like that, but she was already prostituting her soul to the Sterns and their American God. There was no way she was going to do it looking like she just stepped out of the Round Robin Inn.
Mee-Kyong put her second leg over the side of the tub. Mr. Stern was already waist deep in the water. “Well, we all know why we’re here today, don’t we?” He talked as if he were addressing a room full of witnesses, but it was just his wife and their newest religious convert. Not even Benjamin had come to her baptism. Did he refuse to participate since he knew it was a farce?
“Sister Mee-Kyong.” Mr. Stern put one arm on her shoulder, and Mee-Kyong forced in a deep breath to keep from squirming away. “Because of your confession of faith and your desire to accept Jesus as your Lord, Savior, and Master, it is my privilege to baptize you today.”
Mee-Kyong clenched her jaw shut. Yes, she would submit to this strange ritual. She would let Mr. Stern submerge her in water and congratulate himself on yet another Asian convert. Why should it matter to her? She had been conceived behind bars. What right did she have to think she might one day be free?
Mr. and Mrs. Stern both watched her expectantly. Realizing she had missed something, Mee-Kyong glanced from one to the other, trying to pick up some sort of cue. “I asked if you believe that Jesus died for your sins and came back to life,” Mr. Stern prompted.
“Oh.” Mee-Kyong placed a stray wisp from her hair behind her ear. Mrs. Stern could make her own blond curls perform staggering stunts that defied physics, but she obviously had no experience with fine, straight Korean hair. “Yeah, I believe that.”
“And do you want to live your life from now on in obedience and submission to him?”
“Sure.” The word tumbled out of Mee-Kyong’s mouth before she could correct it. “I mean, yes. Yes, that’s what I want.”
Mr. Stern frowned slightly, but he cleared his throat and went on. “Well then, Sister Mee-Kyong, it is my pleasure to baptize you in the name of the Father ...”
His hand was on her shoulder. His other held her wrist. Mee-Kyong locked her knees in place.
“... and of the Son ...”
He moved her hand and covered her mouth. She opened her lips to try to suck in a breath of air, but he clamped his palm down over her. She shut her eyes and braced herself.
“... and of the Holy Spirit.”
He pressed down on her shoulder. She opened her eyes, her pupils screaming although her throat couldn’t. She wasn’t even under the water yet, but she needed air. Air. She gulped a mouthful of nothing. A vacuum. Her lungs made the motion of inhaling but didn’t suck anything in. She thrashed both arms out wildly and scratched at whatever she found. The motion startled her restrainer. She pushed him back. “Get away from me.” The water seared her skin. She lifted one red leg out of the tub, flinging her hands behind her to keep him from grabbing her again.
The woman was standing now, blocking her path. With a worried frown on her adipose face, she reached her arms out, groping, grabbing. Mee-Kyong wrestled free, flinging her abductors aside and racing out the room, dripping water as she scrambled toward the hallway and down the stairs.
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- Writer
