"Why are you an atheist?"
Abbey Bennett had been asking her older brother this question for well over a year now. Not once had he given her a straight answer. But, she had returned home from church the day before with a new conviction, one not even Michael Bennett could outwit.
In fact, that Sunday had been a very eye-opening experience for her. She wasn't a changed woman or anything, but she was somehow different. A brighter light lit up her face, a more vibrant energy fueled her every movement, a broader smile commandeered her lips, and a happier tune sprung forth from her vocal chords. Everyone had noticed it, Michael especially.
Following confession, Abbey had sat in the church and done her penance. Hail Mary after Hail Mary, Our Father after Our Father until she was nearly blue in the face. The priest, however, had been quite lenient on her, or so she thought. She left the church feeling light and airy, completely burden-free.
But plagued with questions.
"Why are you an atheist, Michael?"
At the moment, Abbey did not consider herself God's biggest fan, but nor did she consider herself an enemy of His. She couldn't fathom how anyone could completely disregard the idea of God in and of itself.
"Why are you a Christian?" He replied.
"Because I believe in God. I'm not exactly writing Him fan mail everyday, but I believe in Him."
Michael seemed to accept this answer without a question, an unexpected reaction from an atheist.
"Then I'm an athiest because I don't believe in God."
That was not a sufficient answer, as far as Abbey was concerned. It was far too evasive, and far too much of a cop-out.
"That doesn't make any sense to me," she said. "I can understand not liking God, being angry at God, distrusting God, and even condemning God. But how can you not believe in Him?"
"I choose not to."
"You choose not to. Okay. What the hell does that mean?"
"I've gone through everyone you just said- not liking God, being angry at God, distrusting God, and what was the last thing?" Michael asked.
"Condemning God."
"And condemning God. After all of that, I finally decided that this so-called God we're supposed to believe in as Catholics doesn't exist if I can feel that way towards him. If I can condemn Him, He must not exist."
"Maybe it's because as of right now, you have a higher education than I do, but I'm not following you," Abbey admitted.
"That's because you believe in God. If you understood why I didn't, then you'd be an atheist too."
"Well, I think God is a sinner too. Does that make me an atheist?"
"No, but it makes you a really, really bad Catholic," Michael said, with a smirk. "Why do you think God is a sinner?"
"I don't think He's perfect, that's what I'm saying. I mean, He kills people. That's a sin. And He creates people who kill. That must be a sin.
"I sincerely hope you didn't share this theory with the priest in confession yesterday."
"What, and risk excommunication?"
Saturday night, nearly a week after her soon-to-become legendary appearance at church, was a particularly sleepless one for Abigail Bennett. Despite her best efforts, she could not escape thoughts of religion, God, church, and all related subjects. Her mind had been likewise occupied throughout the entire weeks. She was filled with questions, presumptions, doubts, confusion, among other things.
Her sleeplessness, on this night at least, was not put to waste. It was put to good use. That is, the moment her older sister, Julia, entered the house at 2:37 in the morning.
Abbey heard the door creak open and subsequently close all the way from her upstairs bedroom. Julia had never been very talented when it came to sneaking into the house late at night, and it had lead to quite a few consequences for her as a teenager. Abbey, however, had been a master. She had memorized every trick in the book, and could easily fool her parents into believing she had been tucked safely in bed all night long, when, in fact, she had been loitering around the parking lot after a Stones concert with her friends. Julia had not been quite so lucky.
As Julia quietly climbed up the stairs, with a very unsuccessful air of stealth, Abbey crawled out of bed, pulled her bathrobe on, and met her sister in the hallway. A clearly distracted Julia was more than startled by Abbey's presence and let out a slight yelp.
"Shh!" Abbey whispered, urgently. "Do you want to wake up Dad!"
She grabbed Julia's arm and yanked her, with considerable strength and force, into her room.
"Where have you been?"
"I'm almost twenty-five years old, Abbey, I'm not bound to a curfew anymore!" Julia replied, haughtily.
"Well, you don't go creeping around the house after two in the morning, Julia! What were you thinking? You're not even good at creeping!"
"Hey! I resent that."
"Face it, stealth is just not your strong suit," Abbey said. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"What, a girl can't visit her own family?"
"Not at two in the morning she can't!"
Julia avoided Abbey's gaze and walked over to the bed. She dropped her purse on the floor and sat on the bed, dejected. Abbey quickly moved to sit beside her, now concerned.
"What's wrong, Jul?" Abbey questioned.
"You can't tell anyone."
"I won't."
"I haven't told anyone else yet," Julia whispered.
"I won't tell anyone. What's the matter?"
"You're going to hate me."
"Oh, for crying out loud, Julia, I'm not going to hate you!" Abbey exclaimed.
"You're all into the Christian thing right now. You're not going to like this."
"All into the Christian thing?"
"Yeah," Julia said. "You know, going to church. You've been interrogating about God nonstop these past few days. I can't escape you."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know it bothered you," Abbey said, hurt.
"No, I don't mean it like that. I just mean…now, especially, you're going to want to kill me when I tell you this."
"Tell me what?"
"Your penniless, unmarried, grad school student sister is…"
"What?"
"Pregnant."
