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Show unfathomably ignemt and had no idea the truths I'd stacked against her, but even an idiot like her could tell she'd been assaulted, and she slapped me. I said, "But if one smites thee on the right cheek, turn him the other also." Sharlee, my nemesis, was smart enough to see I'd beaten her at her own game and crumbled on the floor bawling like a girl. Uncle Boss took her away to be comforted, and Aunt Davina gave me a good talking to. She said she understood it must be hard for me to come away from everything I knew about the world to Utah where the way of life was so different and I didn't have any friends, but I would have to learn to love Sharlee like cousins. Aunt Davina said she knew I'd have a rough go of it ever since she and my mom were sisters together in Texas, and Mom took an uncouth tmcker for a husband, and lit out for Truth and Consequence, and shunned the straight and narrow path. She said I mustn't blame Mom, though, cause she sent me to Aunt Davina out of love; Mom knew a boy like me, bom into the Lord's covenant, shouldn't come of age in a gentile land. Aunt Davina asked me please apologize to Sharlee, but I refused. Later Sharlee came to me so pious the holy spirit must have been rancid inside her, and forgave me insulting her. The next day Aunt Davina told me she'd prayed up a sweat over me and found me a way to spend afternoons out-of-doors in the service of the Lord's host. Bishop Hearthway, she said, wanted to hire me for a groundskeeper. So that's how I came to spend so much time with the bishop's celestial wife, Sister Hearthway. * * * |