1 Chapter 1
Hill Mary (Fictional) is a small town in New Jersey, a town with kind hearted families staying in, they know how to be there for each other like one big family! It always amazes visitors as to how can these people live this peacefully and nurture each other like this.
It truly impresses our visitors!
The St. Mary Catholic Church has been keeping this town in peace since years before! It has been the root that is holding this town together, a place where everyone feels welcomed and at home, it has been a safe place for everyone and played an important role in every town member's life!
Myself on the other hand, as the Reverend's only child, Father Maverick Tomlinson has been not just a great father to me, he has been the most trusted Reverend in Hill Mary town, a great guider in both religion and life in general, everybody believed he was the wisest and his wisdom was amazing.
Growing up as a Reverend's daughter there was always so much expected from me, from how neat I did my hair to my dress code, father said I had to set an example with my appearance first before I could set it with my inner self.
I was always in long and grey coloured dresses, my shoes looked like those of worn out old woman shoes, I had to always put my rosary on because father believed if I had impure thoughts the rosary would be in my neck to watch everything and stop me from committing to my bad ideas as an individual.
I had to always have my veil on my head to cover my curly hair because father believed that as a child of god, you shall not change your appearance but rather cover it with something to show respect to the almighty!
Everything was already planned out for me since I was young. I had only two friends from respectful and middle class families. Samantha Fillies and Marion Gomez, they are great friends, God fearing and very kind at heart, I'm always thankful for them to be a part of my life. Always.
Marion and I were closer than I was with Sam, the two of us grew up in front of each other's eyes, our families were even more closer, his mother Yolanda was a housewife, she respected everyone and loved her dear husband Flavio.
Yolanda Gomez has played a role of a mother to me since I was a little girl, according to our church when Marion and I grow up we will go to college to take religion courses and when we come back I'd marry him and he'll take over my father's church.
That was everyone's plan for us, nobody asked us if that was what we wanted, we just had to accept it.
Our parents wanted us to spend enough time together since we'd spend the rest of our lives together. I was already his woman spiritually and he was already my man spirituality.
Although we had certain rules we had to follow, the first rule was to do right by each other and respect each other, the second rule was to never have sex before our marriage and last but not least of our rules, was to build a spiritual relationship with each other before our marriage. So in a clear sense Marion and I were in a relationship but not in a relationship, or should I say…a spiritual relationship.
In a different case, nobody else knew that Marion and I had feelings for each other, we were always flirtatious around each other and we could be comfortable around each other, he was a great friend but he used to tease my shoes or anything I had on any given time. He was funny.
On Sunday after a church service, Marion went inside the big church building and finds Hillary praying before the Virgin Mary statue, he decided to wait until she was done to talk to her.
Hillary turns around after saying 'Amen'
"Hey! Did you pray for me?" He teases her
"Of course silly." She giggles
"Guess what, we'll be together alone at your house tonight."
"Where will my dad be?" She rolls her eyes and laughs sweetly.
"He's the one that even asked me lol, besides…"
Hillary covered his mouth.
"Don't say lol ever again."
He nodded.
The two of them were raised to never utter certain words as well.
"Okay fine, your dad is going for an exorcism out of town so he asked me to come over and stay with you." He explained
"Where's the exorcism?" Hillary curiously asks
Marion shrugs.
"He just said it's out of town. I hope it all goes well but I'm glad I'll be with you tonight."
"Yes, me too. But I need to hear from father where he's going first."
Hillary excused herself and went back home to find her father packing up.
"Hey dad, where are you off to?"
"Hey princess, I am called to perform an exorcism out of town, somewhere in Pennsylvania. I'll be back tomorrow evening, I've called Marion to stay for a night and I believe nothing out of the ordinary will happen, I trust the two of you." He tells her
Hillary nodded and helped her father to pack up and he bid him farewell when he drives away.
After a few hours Marion's parents came to drop him off at Hillary's home and they left him over.
The two locked the house and they played their favourite songs by their favourite celebrity Taylor Swift, they listened to her whole Playlist and sang along.
Hillary was reading a book by Jane Austin 'Pride and Prejudice ' lying on the sofa and Marion was playing video games.
Since Hillary was fifteen and Marion was sixteen Father Tomlinson has allowed Marion at his house to stay with Hillary when he went away for exorcisms and Marion's family did not mind.
"Hey its 6PM, we should be at church for Bible study." Reminded Hillary who quickly got up from the sofa and put the book she was reading away in a shelf she got it from.
"Uh…can't we miss it for today? I'm enjoying my game"
"Miss it?! We never miss Bible studies so please help me and get up so we can leave."
"Whatever then"
Marion got up and turned off the TV and the two walked to church, on their way they met with Samantha who also had her Bible with her.
"Hey guys, how are you doing?" she greets them
"Hey friend. We're good and how about you?"
"I'm good girl, can't wait to get started with the Bible study. "
"Yeah, me too." Giggled Marion.
The three friends got to church where they meet with their peers who also came for Bible study.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. We can all take out our bibles and turn to John chapter five verse nineteen. Can somebody else read it out loud for us." Hillary smiles as she speaks.
She has been leading the youth bible study for two years now and she was good with it.
"1 John 5:19 (KJV) And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." Samantha read it
"Go further please." Requested Hillary
Marion took over.
"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. 1 John 5:21 (KJV) Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen."
"Peace be onto all of you, can we discuss what we just read? Anybody with anything to say in regards to this verses?" Hillary asks
"From my own understanding I'd say it speaks to us about the existence of God, like who we belong to as individuals." Samantha answered
"Exactly, like as human beings we shouldn't question his existence because if we do then that will be like questioning who's our shoulder to lean on, all this time we have been leaning on him and eventually raising questions would be…uh…" he paused
"Disrespectful?" Hillary said
Marion smiled at her.
"That, yes."
The two exchanged eye contacts.
"I'm glad that's how you guys understand it, but every verse goes deeper in depth, like Father Tomlinson always preaches "There is more to the word of God than just learning about it. It is comfort and a shoulder to lean on" in other words and in regards to our current verse, us knowing that our God, the one we only know and the only one we've been leaning on and considering our rock does truly exist and we shouldn't question who we belong to because when we needed him he was there for us, so why would we raise questions all of the sudden? The Bible says he exists and with our past experiences we know he exists."
Hillary was dedicated in her preaching and she did it with so much passion, Marion was always impressed with his friend's preaching.
