Evolving Atheist

The Pagan boy stood in the greenhouse awaiting his bride. The justice of the peace was behind him. His brother was beside him. His daughters each wore white dresses with blue lace and carried small bouquets of blue flowers. Some family and friends were seated in the rows of wooden chairs. It was a sunny Friday afternoon and this was his second trip down the aisle. His new bride had been met online. She was a teacher and seemed very shy. The relationship itself was a knee jerk as the Pagan boy had gone hunting thinking he needed to be with someone. He did not think he should be on his own and jumped at the first woman who showed interest. He had nothing in common with her...in fact she even frowned on a couple of things he had passion for, [Read more...]

He listened to his wife scream the words "Fuck you!" into the phone. His mother was on the other end. His mother had come over earlier asking to take her granddaughter for a walk to the local mall. She had taken the stroller and toddler and off they went. This had all happened before the Pagan boy had arrived home from work. Since his arrival home, his mother had returned with the child, all with smiles. All seemed well except that the wife picked up on that lovely odor that sometimes arises from the diaper. His mother mentioned noticing the smell as they left the mall, but deciding to wait the fifteen minutes until she brought the child home to change her. The Pagan boy had no problem with this. He took the giggling little girl in his [Read more...]

In April of 1994, the Pagan boy got off a plane and walked back into Pearson International Airport in Toronto. He felt defeated. He had attempted to make a go of it on his own and was returning to the home nest at 24. He was given a small room in his parents' apartment. He was given access to their cars and all of this under the condition that he went back to school and completed his university degree. He did as instructed. He had a job through the summer working at an office that paid minimum wage. The office went bankrupt in August and vanished. A week later, he began a job at an air compressor company where his father was the accountant. He worked at the shipping desk with the intention of working three days a week while going to [Read more...]

It was August of 1991 and the good Catholic boy was flying back to Calgary with one of his school friends. There was a townhouse waiting for them that the boy's parents had purchase in Calgary's northeast neighborhood of Dalhousie. One of the boy's cousins, a realtor, had brokered the deal and was waiting on the other end to take them to their new castle of sand. The unit was part of a row housing set. The centre unit of five. The two hunkered in with nothing but a stereo and sleeping bags. The good Catholic boy's family offered donations from tea pots to a microwave to a wok to toilet paper. That first morning, the two sat looking out at fresh snow on an August morning through the back sliding doors as Metallica welcomed the sandman on [Read more...]