Unforgiven Sin

            The fog was everywhere.
            It covered the water like a blanket, and stifled the world. The air went into your lungs, but you could never get enough oxygen. It was like drowning.
            The fog stretched in every direction across the bay. It shrouded the surroundings. The only feature on the expanse of water was the small wooden boat, and the two figures riding it.
            The first figure sat, wrapped in a blanket, rowing the boat to its destination. The water received the oars like communion in a worshipper’s mouth, but this was a far more difficult task. The figure’s soft hands gripped the heavy wood and he strained with each stroke. His muscles ached with inexperience. He was a stranger to heavy labor.
            The other figure kneeled on the boat’s shallow floor and stared with frightened blue eyes over the side of the craft. The small face stared down in awe at the water as it lapped the sides of the boat. It came up with dark tendrils, hungering for him, wanting to drag him down into the bay. Then they would fall, making a gulping sound as if the dark liquid had decided it wanted to swallow the boat instead of just the child. This was how it had been for a long time, and although it was late, the boy did not want to sleep.
            He looked up from the water at his companion. He stared at him with his deep, blue eyes.
            “You’ll like it at the blacksmith’s” the companion said, but the boy had already heard it. “It will be quite a holiday”
            “I don’t see why I had to leave mommy,” the boy replied. The man felt a pang of regret, they had left in the night by boat as to not awake her. She would have made it more difficult, but it was what had to be done.
            “There there, you’re going to make lots of new friends in this new town, you’ll forget about your mommy, you’ll be a big boy” he wish he could forget about Molly, he wish he could move to another town and never see her again.
            They sat in silence a while. Silence, save the soft lapping of the water on the side of the boat, and the inexperienced strokes of the man.
            “Father Francis,” The boy said. The man winced at his title, but let out a rare smile at the irony. “is my daddy in the new town?” This caught him off guard.
“Uhh…” he sputtered. The Priest didn’t want to lie to the boy, but he did what he had to “I don’t think so, I don’t know where your daddy is, only God does” That should end this talk about daddy.
            But it didn’t
             “Mommy never likes to talk about daddy, she scolds me when I do. I heard Ms. Braddock call me a bastard after I walked on her flower garden, it made mommy really upset…what does bastard mean?” Another question that caught him off guard and made him wince.
            “Well, it means that when your mommy and daddy made you they weren’t married,” he answered. It was the only way he really could answer.
            “Does that mean that my mommy’s a sinner?” His blue eyes shone at him
            “No, your mommy asked for forgiveness, and god granted it” Father Francis’ own blue eyes looked back on him
            “What about my daddy?” Their eyes had the same shade of blue.
            By now their boat moved towards the shore of the bay, and a large man called out, spotting them through the clearing fog.
            “This is the blacksmith, now you be good for him, and your mommy just might come and visit you” This is what he was going to do; this is what he had to do
            The small bag full of the boy’s belongings was given to the blacksmith, and the priest thanked and blessed him. The boy would be in good hands.
            The child waved goodbye to the priest, turned around and started to walk, hand in hand, with the blacksmith to a new life, and the priest watched his only sin fade into the fog.