Unholyverse

~Part 8~

It was sad to leave the van behind. Gerard called someone he knew at Goodwill to come and collect it, so it wasn't like it was going to be left there to get stripped apart by kids or scavengers who would have no idea how much it had meant to them; everything it had seen. But still. Ray took a million pictures and Bob practically hugged it, and Mikey watched it get smaller and smaller through the window on the bus, until they turned out onto the highway and he couldn't see it anymore.

It was so weird to be able to stretch out his limbs and like, get up and move around. Cortez and Charlie crashed out in their bunks almost as soon as the bus pulled off, so once Mikey had stashed his shit he went into the big lounge area at the front with the rest of the guys.

Frank curled up in the corner of one of the couches with his books; he was plowing through one of Gerard's dry-as-shit tomes of religious lore, and alternating chapters with his millionth reread of Harry Potter.

Mikey slid into the other couch with Gerard, who looked up and said, "Oh hey, did you have any more visions you decided not to tell me about?"

Mikey rolled his eyes. "Don't be a bitch, Gee. I told you, I didn't think it was a big deal. We're here now, aren't we?"

"We are," Gerard agreed. He dropped his voice and murmured, "Pete seems to really like you. Maybe you can encourage him to confide in you, you know? Tell you if anything strange has been going on for him."

"I feel weird about it," Mikey said, because Pete had been super nice to them and Mikey felt like a tool for secretly thinking he was mixed up in some kind of dark magic or whatever.

"I know," Gerard said sympathetically. "I don't want you to lie to him. It's hard, like, I know we need to be discrete about stuff, but sometimes I feel like this line of work really calls for dishonesty."

"We can't just roll up to people and ask if they've sacrificed any virgins recently," Brian remarked from across the aisle, where he was sitting at the table with Ray and Bob.

"I know," Gerard said again. "Just sometimes it's hard to match it up with what I think is right."

Mikey slouched down in his seat and spread his legs way out across the available space, just because he could.

Frank got up then, knee-walking across the couch towards them. "All right, here's what I don't get."

Gerard folded his hands in his lap. "What don't you get, Frankie?"

Frank held up the book he was reading. "Everyone says Mary was a virgin until she died, right? But Mary and Joseph were Jewish."

Gerard nodded. "So was Jesus."

"Little known fact," Bob remarked.

Frank ignored him. "I just read in this book that for a marriage not to be consummated physically, back in those days? Was considered a sin under Jewish law. How does that even add up?"

Gerard nodded, chewing his lip, then settled back in his seat in the way that meant everybody should sit tight and get comfy. "Okay, first of all? Jesus was an only child officially, but there's a lot of evidence that he had siblings."

Frank frowned. "Evidence like what?"

"Like the fact that the Bible refers several times to his brothers and sisters," Gerard said, waving his hand. "Also at no point does it say that Mary remained a virgin after Christ's birth."

"Does it say she didn't?"

"Funnily enough, Frank, no, the Bible does not document the first time Mary and Joseph got down." Gerard folded his sunglasses up and hooked them over the top pocket on his shirt. "But it's just stupid . Why wouldn't they consummate their marriage? Whatever."