NEARLY DONE by Molly Black

Author:Molly Black [Black, Molly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Are you ready to repent?” the baptizer asked.

“I am ready,” the man said.

“Do you repent for what you have done?”

“I’m sorry! So sorry! Those damned casinos! They’ve sucked the life out of me. They’ve taken my life. They should have all been banned. Terrible places! I’m a ruined person now, I can never get back what I had.” His voice was harsh and uneven. “So yes, I repent, I truly do. I’m ready for a new start.”

The baptizer stared at him dispassionately. This was a broken man, a weak man, someone who had been unable to resist the pull of the addiction that had taken him down. Defeat oozed from every pore of his body. He saw it in his bowed head, in the crumpled clothing he was wearing, in the expression in his eyes that offered no hope.

He’d come to pick him up because the man no longer had a car. His car had gone the way of everything else – sold in order to feed his addiction.

Or maybe the car had been repossessed. Yes, now that he thought back to the rambling conversation he’d had with this man, he thought that repossession was what had happened. It had been a bitter blow to him.

“I’m without wheels, I’ve got no transport, I can’t even get to a job interview,” he’d whined.

Of course, he’d lost his last job because of his gambling problem, because when you were at a casino until three, four, five a.m. every single night, you were going to have problems at eight a.m. when your boss expected you to be bright and sharp and ready to work.

What had he thought?

Now, in the stillness of the night, and with the slight breeze ruffling the edge of the hood he wore, the baptizer allowed his true feelings to flare inside him – just for a moment. For one minute, he indulged himself with the rage and scorn he felt at these people, who, according to him, had not been strong enough.

The man in front of him, even now, was blaming the casino for all his woes. The casino? As if the problem lay there, and not inside his own head? But, of course, there was no point in telling him that. No point in telling any of them. They were all deep in denial, believing themselves to be a victim of life.

Their hard luck stories all sounded the same to him.

"Come with me, my son," he intoned, making sure his voice was grave and reverent. "We will walk down to the river in the peaceful still of the night."

It was very late. He’d wanted to leave this baptism as late as possible, after a drive past the river had shown him the sight he dreaded – a police patrol was on duty.

When he’d seen that, icy cold fear had suffused the baptizer for a moment. He’d stared at that patrol, those two cops, with a feeling of terror and hatred and a brief sense of powerlessness that had been even more unpleasant.

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