The BIG PICTURE - A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic

Freyja knew how to send the signals. In fact, she couldn’t ever remember being turned down. But what to do when the guy you are dying to have sex with is a priest? She felt guilty even thinking about it, but even now as she looked at his long, slender fingers on the steering wheel she imagined them tracing the curves of her body.

Making casual conversation was proving difficult. She kept getting fixated on the length of his eyelashes, the bead of sweat on his upper lip. Freyja had always controlled, even manipulated her previous sexual encounters. It was part of the fun. But this? Was Miguel emitting some kind of pheromone that intoxicated her, that caused a chemical imbalance in her brain and her body, especially her body? She felt like she was ‘in heat.’

“Why did you become a priest?” Freyja asked. If she was going to make a fool of herself she might as well get the information she wanted.

“In the Velasco family sons go into the family business or the priesthood. My father groomed my older brother to take over the business.”

“So why are you working for Klein?” Freyja said.

“The Church and I have had a falling out.”

That sounded promising. “How so?” Freyja said. Having been a student at a parochial school for twelve years she could imagine any number of reasons for losing faith, not the least being the nuns who taught her. Fortunately, she’d never acquired any faith so there was nothing to lose.

“Since my brother, Jorge, was kidnapped and murdered two years ago, I found it increasingly difficult to take confession from the likes of those that killed him.”

“That could do it.” That still didn’t explain why he worked for Klein.

“I wanted to leave the church, but the Bishop suggested a sabbatical,” Miguel said. “He thinks my faith may return.”

“What do you think?”

Miguel shook his head. “I honestly don’t know.”

“Do you still abide by the rules?”

Miguel looked at her and smiled, but different from before. This one started slow and lingered. Freyja felt her face grow even hotter.

“Old habits die hard,” Miguel said.

Freyja wondered what habits is he talking about? But she liked the fact he had used the word ‘hard’ in the sentence.