We have a new short fiction series for you by Angela Santistevan. We hope you enjoy it.

-Allie

It was real.  Awful.  Unfathomable.  And, the most real moment, Katie, at the tender age of twelve, had ever lived through.  Katie couldn’t help but feel that what she had just done, as awful as it was, couldn’t compare to the awfulness that her life-time best friend in the world, Siciley, had lived through every time that this woman, lying on the river bank, half in the water, had done to her over and over again.

The Preacher’s Daughter

Katie had gotten up earlier than usual that day.  It was the first day of summer break.

“Good morning, Princess.”

“Dad.”  Katie stopped short, turned towards his voice, and walked fast across his office to give him a big hug.

“Pretty early young lady, what’s on your calendar for the day, Katie blue eyes?”

“What’s on yours, Pastor Timmons?”  They both giggled.

“I’m…”

“I know Daddy, working on next week’s sermon.  What’s it about?”

“I’m being lead to speak on the scripture, ‘Be angry and sin not’.”

“Wow, that really doesn’t sound like an easy thing to do, Dad.”

“I think you nailed that one right on the head, young lady. But, what’s easy and what’s right aren’t always the same thing. Are you heading down to Siciley’s to play?”

Katie grinned, her icy blue eyes sparkling.

“I made you a plate.  Please eat before you head out.  I love you.”

“I will.  Love you too, Dad.”

A native of Virginia, Angela Santistevan has lived in many regions of the United States, as well as Central America. She received her education at Purdue University in Indiana. She has two previously published novels; Downfall, and Good at Being Bad. Katie and Siciley is the first short story she has published.