The Time I Almost Got Religion

by

John J. Dunphy

(Originally published in Scifaikuest, November 2021)

She was dressed entirely in black leather: skin-tight pants, boots and a corset revealing plenty of cleavage.”Would you like to pray with me?” she asked.”Uh, sure,” I replied. “I’ll pray with you.” So I’m an agnostic, but I’d be crazy to turn down an invitation to pray

with a babe like this, I thought. Maybe she regards praying as foreplay.

I mentaly revise

the Lord’s prayer

“…lead me into temptation..”

We left the fetish club holding hands, and walked for several blocks through the grimiest alleys I’d ever seen.

dumpster

a feral cat emerges

with a carcass

She halted when we came upon a sleeping wino. “Ready to pray?” she asked. So we’re going to pray for this smelly old wino, I thought. What a waste of time.She then pulled out a knife from each boot,handed one to me, and said,”You go first.”

That’s when I realized she had asked me to prey with her.

fleeing

behind me I hear

pursuit footsteps

*****

John J. Dunphy published scifaiku collections include Stellar Possibilities and Dark Nebulae.