him to go into the barn. She would tell him tomorrow, if the Indian were still there. She hoped—and felt guilty for it—that he would go away and the whole matter would be her secret.
Katherine could not sleep that night. She was both concerned for the Indian and apprehensive of the idea that he might come in and...no, no, Katherine, stop that line of thinking right now!
She got up, quietly moved through the house, getting some more food from the kitchen and going out to the barn with an oil lamp. He was still in there, awake, standing, and naked. She pulled in a breath. His penis...it was so enormous. She had never actually seen her husband’s, but she knew this Indian was three if not four times the size of the Reverend’s... and the phallus was glowing red.
The Indian smiled at her. His teeth were a bright white, and there was fire in his eyes....
10.
The Devil did not expect Katherine at this hour of night, standing before him in her night clothing, with an oil lamp and food. Perhaps she came for this, he wouldn’t have to force her after all. Indeed, why would she be so clean, so sweet to smell, so pure of skin, if not for him? He grabbed her hard, pulling her close. The lamp fell to the ground, and so did the food. She tried to cry out and he clamped his hand on her mouth. He whispered, “Hush, my dear.” He dragged her toward the hayloft. She put up a struggle, but not a good one; no, she gave in too easily, too quickly. “You have been waiting for this all your life,” said The Devil into her ear; “since you were a little girl, I have known your true being, and the same fate shall fall upon your daughter.” So he got on top of her, pried her legs open. He stroked his giant red penis. Her teeth sank into his palm as he entered her, but he did not bleed. Her eyes gazed up, bright and blue, then closed tightly. He could see it in her face: she was in pain, but there was also ecstasy; it wasn’t easy to get into her but once he did her vagina became wet and clasped around him; he quickly spent himself into her, and lay on her, gazing on her skin and hair and beauty.
“This is my dark gift to you,” said The Devil, “and a nice slap in the face to Jedediah.”
“You speak...”
“What? Like a white man?”
The Devil laughed, stood up, and revealed his true form—with a snap of the finger.
“Behold, my dear!”
Katherine was not frightened; she was not surprised or horrified. She sighed, closed her eyes, said, “I should have known.”
When she opened her eyes, The Devil was gone.
11.
The walk from the barn back into the house felt, to Katherine Payne, like forever. She cringed, feeling The Devil’s seed coming out of her, running down her leg. Violated. She had just been raped. Couldn’t Jedediah hear that? No. The sounds were not loud, and the house was placed a good two hundred feet from the barn. It goes without saying she felt quite soiled. She could smell The Devil’s grime and sweat on her. She wanted a bath, needed one more than anything she ever needed in her life. But Jedediah might wake up and want to know why she was bathing at this odd hour.
So she went to her bed, prayed to the Lord. Asked Him to erase the incident from her mind, if not history. How could she tell her husband? She could not. In the morning, she decided she would not.
12.
Katherine Payne’s belly was growing; the sickness she’d had when pregnant with Evangeline was also present. She knew what she had to do. She attempted, on several occasions, to coax her husband into the marriage bed. He ignored her, he had no interest in the act. He said, “Woman, what has gotten into you? Only whores ask for it!”
She looked at Evangeline one night and cried, saying to her child, “You should have been a boy, this is a world of men; for a woman, there is only anguish and affliction....”
One night, her daughter put to bed, Katherine went to her husband, who sat by candlelight in the front of the house reading from The Book. She saw that he was reading from The Book of Samuel.
“Jedediah,” she said, “have you noticed something different about me?”
He looked up. “What say you?”
“Look at me,” she said, turning to her side, “can’t you see?”
“See what?”
She sighed, then lifted up her blouse and showed him her naked belly.
“Katherine!” he bellowed, rising to his feet. She pulled her blouse down. “You are with child?!?” he shouted, rather stupefied.
“Yes,” she answered, oh so timid and soft...
13.
Yes, Jedediah Payne was, needless to say, quite the flabbergasted man in God’s flock. The last time he had relations with his young wife was in Boston. Not once since their months out here had he gone to her...touched her...or even considered the vile desires of wanton flesh.
“I cannot be the father,” he realized, saying this accusingly to his emotionally embattled spouse.
“No,” she admitted.
Payne was surprised by how calm he reacted; it was almost as if he was relieved that he had not spawned another offspring.
He said, flatly, “You have some explaining to do, wife.”
She began to talk, fast, fearful he might stop her before she could tell her story. She told him of a wounded Indian who had been in the barn, and how she had helped clean his injuries, and how she gave him some food, and how she hoped he just might go away, and when she went to check to see if he was there, he violated her. It was against her will, she assured him of this. There was nothing she could have done. He was a strong, irreligious animal.
She did not confess who the Indian really was. She was certain she had a hallucination, that vision of evil.
“Why...” and he cleared his throat. “Why did you not tell me of this when it occurred?”
“What would you have thought of me?” she asked.
The anger started to boil inside him. “So you only tell me when you are with child!?!”
“I did not know I—” and she began to cry.
“Look at me,” he said.
She sobbed.
“Look at me, wife!”
She turned to face him.
Was she telling the truth? There seemed to be no deception. He struck her across the face, very hard. Katherine fell to the porch, spitting blood from her mouth. Payne wanted to kick her, boot her in the belly and flush this evil tot from her bowels. He stopped, taking heed of what he had done. She lay at his feet, choking.
He couldn’t do it. It would be murder. He wouldn’t do it.
“You are no wife of mine,” he said, and went into the house, into his chamber, locking the door. He opened the Good Book, sought a passage to soothe his mind...
He
