Behind the Scenes of:
A BIRDHOUSE IN BROOKLYN
Shawn’s fundamentalist upbringing was
something they’d sidestepped when it surfaced. Facetiously referring to herself
as a Latter Day Atheist fell flat; you didn’t joke about religion. Shawn could
be sanctimonious when provoked, but that was Shawn. Lucy claimed nothing more
than a quizzical dip in the Lutheran pool. Her mother’s doing, dissatisfied
with Catholicism and wanting something more conducive to escape. Left to their
own, Lucy and her father never got around to religion and Lucy remained
comfortable with the secular.
She recalled one of those marathon day
trips they had taken when things started to fall apart with Carlos. Shawn
always gravitated to Pennsylvania and the comforting familiar. She was his
sounding board. They’d turned off the highway around Lancaster, headed for poky
country roads and promising flea markets to take his mind off his lover’s
chicanery. At the bottom of an exit ramp Lucy saw a cluster of people waving
placards. They’d drawn closer and she’d gasped as the messages came into view:
graphic detail of a bloody fetus, God’s wrath, eternal damnation, American
Holocaust. She’d turned to Shawn, expecting an equally horrified expression to
meet hers. He avoided her scrutiny, fidgeted with his CD player and sped from
the scene.
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