Page 74 of Samson

She was right. He didn’t want to scare her away by exposing what was going on in the deepest parts of himself, but she was worth it. If he told her everything and she stuck around, then he had nothing left to lose. “All right.” He swallowed back any indecision. “Here goes nothing. Are you religious at all?”

“That’s an odd question.”

“Does that mean no?”

“There are a lot of religions. Are you referring to a specific one?”

“Christianity.”

“I am not attending church or anything, but I did a couple times when I was a kid and…I don’t know. It stuck with me. I felt something that I can’t explain, and maybe I’m crazy, but I do believe God is real even if He’s just in my head.”

“When I was ten, I gave my life to Jesus.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

“I guess that makes sense. A lot of people go off the rails in their teens and leave any kind of religion in their past.”

“Except I didn’t.”

“I find that hard to believe considering…well…the way you live.”

“I haven’t been active in my faith in a long time. My abilities and skills raised me up very quickly in the eyes of men, and that turned out to be a big distraction. But in the early years, I had purpose. I knew what I was about, and I wanted to serve God however that looked. I knew without a doubt that everything I could do came from Him and that there was a reason He made me the way He did.”

“Wow. I can’t even imagine what that must have looked like.”

“Kind of like it does now. Protecting the innocent. Making sure those who did wrong paid for it.”

“Did something happen to change all that? Or was it just falling prey to the lure of what money can buy?”

“Both, I guess. I didn’t notice it at first, but when you’re as good as I am at everything you do, you begin to trust in your gift and not the giver of that gift.”

“That makes sense. Especially when you are such a capable person.”

Samson shook his head. “It’s not like that for me. I—I don’t know how to say this without sounding like I have an overinflated ego.”

“Too late.” She smiled.

“Funny, but if you want the whole story, you’re going to have to bear with me.”

“Okay. I’ll hold my judgement until the end.”

“Thank you. My mom found it hard to get pregnant.”

“And you think that’s your fault?” She squinted at him.

“You’re going to have to let me tell you the whole story.”

“Sorry.” She made the motion of zipping her lips.

“She and my dad went to a church service where a man prayed for them. He said my mom would conceive within the year and that her baby would be special. He told my father that his son would save his people.”

“Hispeople?”

“My dad’s Armenian. He took it to mean it was connected to the Armenian Genocide.”

“There was an Armenian Genocide?”

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