Less Than Impeccable

Please feel free to leave constructive comments or questions. I am developing this story and these characters for a collection of short stories, or perhaps a novel.

And hit the star if you enjoy a section.

"Everybody believed me; they shouldn't have." Levi nervously pulled at the collar of his shirt and shifted in his chair as he spoke. Beads of sweat were dripping out from underneath midnight black hair and leaving tiny trails across his forehead. Wiping his damp palms on the tops of his legs, he sat straight up in his chair. The burgundy cushion moaned under the strain of his movement and the wooden legs creaked. Levi examined the room around him as he spoke.

The office was smaller than he had remembered. He noticed two small bookshelves full of hymnals and Bibles situated under a tiny porthole window on one side of the room. On the opposite wall there was a bureau where a thickly stained coffee pot was brewing Folgers coffee. Across the room was a large mahogany desk situated under a stained glass window. The late-afternoon sun shone through and illuminated the image. The picture of Mary holding her son Jesus' dead, broken body at the foot of the cross brought a lump to Levi's throat and he quickly looked away.

The heat from the day sat heavy in the small room. Levi wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt and blinked away the sweat stinging his eyes.

"Everybody believed what?" Reverend Decker's low voice rumbled as he spoke. He stood up from his chair and crossed the room as the question hung in the air. Pouring another cup of coffee, he walked over to his desk and leaned on it, his long legs crossing in front of him. His black horn-rimmed glasses fogged as he blew across the top of his coffee mug. He looked at Levi and waited.