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She shakes her head. ‘Nope.’
I watch.
She waits.
When I don’t say anything, she says, ‘What do you want, Hunter?’
Fair enough. ‘About yesterday—’
‘What about yesterday?’
It’s clear she’s embarrassed or angry about what happened. ‘I was just trying to keep ahead of the bullshit. We’ll have to share this town after graduation. No point making things awkward.’
‘Why would they be awkward?’
She’s not going to make this easy for me. ‘You’d be reminded of your regrets every time we run into each other at the post office.’
She tilts her head. ‘Why at the post office?’
‘Or the supermarket. Petrol station. The bank.’
She leans back in her chair, crossing her arms. ‘We get our groceries in Turram, and Mum fills her car up at the feed supply place on the highway because it’s a few cents cheaper than town. The bank’s a possibility, though. Imagine having to pass each other a few times a year.’
Definitely more anger than embarrassment. ‘You know what I mean. You’re a J-dub. I won’t be responsible for you going to hell.’
‘We don’t believe in hell.’
I forgot about that small, important detail. ‘Missing out on everlasting life, then.’
‘What an awful lot of power you think you have.’ She sits forwards and returns her attention to the screen. ‘You were right about one thing, though. I am testing some boundaries.’
I watch her type. ‘Because you’re having doubts?’
She stops, thinks. ‘I guess. Or maybe I just want to try to figure some things out before I’m baptised. The consequences will be more severe after that.’
This is news. ‘You’re not baptised?’
She shakes her head.
‘You weren’t baptised as a baby?’
‘It doesn’t work like that. It has to be our decision.’
I’m learning a lot today. ‘What age do people get baptised?’
She shrugs. ‘It varies, but there’s a lot of pressure when you reach adulthood. The next assembly’s in April. I think everyone’s expecting it to happen then. Mum certainly is.’
‘Huh.’ I cross my feet. ‘It’s a literal baptism? In water?’
‘Fully submerged in a pool in front of thousands of people.’
I sit with that image for a moment. ‘So people just line up in their bathers and get dunked in a pool?’
The faintest smile comes and goes. ‘Actually, they wear clothes over their bathers. The human form can be very tempting, after all.’
I rub my forehead. ‘Of course. You can’t have thousands of people running off to the bathrooms to scratch an itch.’
She shakes her head. ‘That would never happen, because masturbation’s a sin.’
