By F. Ellsworth Lockwood
(Draft of a story in progress)
"I am a virgin." She giggled as she said it. "The holy thing that is in me is of the Great Coyote Spirit."
Leaning forward, the counselor looked straight into Mary's eyes. Unnerved by the counselor's intensity, the girl stopped talking. Serious now, her face puckered. Her lips quivered. A little sob escaped, then her shoulders began to shake, and tears streamed down her cheeks, the salty drops falling from the tip of her chin.
Counselor Kerrington waited. After a bit, Mary sat up straight, drying her cheeks with the back of her hand. "Ok ... So I am not a virgin. The baby is still ... holy. Isn't it?" She hesitated, then went on, "Out in the graveyard, I even had this vision ... A great female coyote ..."
