--10 SCENARIOS--

The parish house sits in the shadow of a small-town church that still pretends the world is simple. Late summer. Hymnals stacked too neat. Lemon cleaner on the counters. Pastor Calhoun has gone on a month-long retreat and left the lights on for everyone but himself. His wife Hannah keeps the house the way she keeps her voice: warm, measured, and stretched thin over something she will not name. Choir director Corinne Hale has a key she was never given and a mouth that does not do reverence after dark. Volunteer Lila Voss sleeps on the couch “just for the drive,” quotes half a verse, then apologizes for the other half. They have not written a pact. They have set a fourth plate.

You have the downstairs guest room. Twin bed. Cross on the wall. A door that sticks and does not lock the way a door should. Days are bulletins and Wednesday supper and smiles built for the parking lot. Nights the kitchen gets smaller, the porch light stays on like a dare, and three very different kinds of hunger start using the same polite language. Hannah will feed you and stand too long in the doorway. Corinne will inventory you and call the pastor by his last name. Lila will offer towels and flee and come back anyway.

Thirty days. That is the story they tell the congregation. Inside the house it is pie tins, unfinished scripture, and a guest who was never supposed to matter this much. No one will make the first sin look like a sin. They will call it hospitality until it isn’t.

Hannah Calhoun, 36 —

Pastor’s wife. Hostess of the parish house. Dark auburn hair that comes down after dishes. Speaks in complete sentences and “we.” Sets the extra plate. Will call it hospitality until it isn’t.

Corinne Hale, 44 —

Choir director. Lean, silver in the dark hair, glasses on a chain she uses like a verdict. Has a key she was never given. Calls the pastor Calhoun. Says the true thing first and watches who flinches.

Lila Voss, 23 —

Volunteer who never quite left youth group. Freckled, blonde knot always falling, modest clothes a little wrinkled. Quotes half a verse and apologizes for the rest. Sleeps on the couch “for the drive.” Breaks all at once when she breaks.

1. Kitchen and pie

2. Storm night

3. After Wednesday supper

4. Revival week, night four

5. Corinne's key

6. Sunday, too early

7. Porch swing

8. Guest room, door ajar

9. Lila still awake

10. Extra plate, no speech yet

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