The atheist starts off with, “this is silly.” I think I see him sense the abrupt change of atmosphere walking through the threshold into a chapel like plunging into lake water naked. When the actress kneels, the atheist explains how God shouldn’t be so vain, I think of the actress and whether or not, with her real kneeling in the fake chapel, she actually prays. She says, “You don’t kneel for Him; you kneel for you.” The atheist storms out saying that “This just doesn’t feel right,” The atheist is outraged that a mother is bleeding to death, her baby may have no father, and someone’s little brother is being held hostage by Islamic fundamentalists. I remember two conversations: Courtney telling me that God wasn’t saving me when my brake lines rusted out in the TGI Fridays parking lot instead of on the 74 bridge. River telling me that she feels blessed that God has watched over all the people in her life who have attempted suicide, because they failed. She hastily tries to add that God was also watching over Jenny, but is too worried that she hurt me. Right before the scene switches The actress looks upand tells God that the atheist “made some good points.”
Written 2010 as an exercise for the MFA program at Columbia College Chicago