Disco lights on chapel walls.

"Bless me Father,
for I have sinned..."

Attempting to rub out an unsightly mark from his cassock, the priest does not immediately acknowledge the person in the booth next to him. This has not gone unnoticed by the "confessioner" as the Father liked to call them. She started again, "Bless me Father, for I have sinned..."

"No." the Father replies in ernest. "No, I won't bless you. Think about what you just said." Staring blindly at the divide between their booths the Lady widens her eyes as if attempting to stare right through the wooden partition. "What do you mean no?" she asks the Father. In an instance he opens the sliding window built into the partition walls so they may see each other a bit more clearly and blankly stares at her through wooden ornamentation. "No."

"But, but. That is what we must start with Father, if you waited for the next part maybe it won't seem so jarring. That is what the next part is for right?" She pleads with the Father to stop being so unreasonable and let her continue. At the front of the Church the choir has taken up a new song enthusiastically, the Father looked almost apologetically at the Lady opposite him, "Excuse me a moment."

Exiting the confessional he walks over to the Choir leader and taps him on the shoulder. "Could you please stop this discordant noise. This is a place to find peace for one's soul. I can promise you not one soul would enter here with all this ruckus." He promptly turns around and walks back to the confessional, midway there the choir leader yells back. "That is why we practice." The Father turns back for a second before finally heading back to the Lady still waiting patiently in the confessional, "To practice singing, first find people who can sing."

Letting out a sigh as he sits down on the bench of the confessional he asks, "Where were we?" The Lady has taken the time to think about what the Father has said and has come to the conclusion that the Father is suffering from cognitive dissonance and if he could let her finish the rest of it then he would feel much better. As would she.

"Well Father, I was going to finish the sacrament," the Father interrupts her rudely with "No." Sitting more upright and facing her, he asks "Why should I bless you for sinning? I don't even think you are really sorry and I don't even know what you did yet."

"But, but Father, you need to let me continue..."

"Do I?"

"Yes, you know this. I will continue on to the confession then."

Scratching his cheek absentmindedly the Father thinks for a bit, "No, I don't like it. There is no I am sorry part."

The Lady looks at him with sincerity, "I can say I am sorry Father. Would that help?"

Leaning forward, elbows on his knees the Father stares at the ground and mumbles something unintelligible. Curious to try and hear the Lady raises herself a bit to see more of the Father through their little window.

He turns his head to her, shoulders resigned to their position, "Ok, you know what I don't like it but it is how it is done and I guess I get paid for this, so there is that. So I will bless you for sinning but you must know that you can still come to Church even if you did not sin. I will bless you for that even more. Not sure how but do you understand? "

"Uhm, I am going to be late... Sorry, Father, I hope you get well soon. Byeeeee!" The Lady yells back as she is already halfway to the door.

---

_{Word of the week has turned a page and a new word to write about is here, Dissonance. Hosted in the Buddy Up Server on discord. Each week the community chooses a new word to write about and present their writing in the Drop in the ocean show at 8 PM UTC. You are welcome to write a post and present it yourself at the show, https://discord.gg/3d5H3K8 The show generally lasts 60 - 90 minutes. Depending on how easy the word is to write about or how deep the conversation gets.
@theHive}