aftermath

        Thinking "a bun in the oven," Maxine held her father's Torah with trembling hands. Hank patiently awaited her words as she tried to marshal her thoughts. He had not seen Nathan Silver's holy book in years. Evidently something frightened her back to the Old Religion. They were sitting in the sunrise nook as moonlight flooded the sideboard. A tallow candle burned evenly within a Mexican glass devoted to the Virgin of Guadalupe. Some of his bric-a-brac.
        "What gives?" He finally asked.
        "Trying to find the passage about Nephalim."
        "Genesis Six."
        "Thanks." She found her page.
        "Giants in the earth and all that jazz."
        "I'm serious, Dozer."
        "Sorry. That old chestnut tickles me. Aliens and Angles, UFOs and the Bible. Just a lot of monkeys throwing their shit in the air."
        "Hush."
        "So many conflicting translations. Did the original text say sons of gods or sons of God? "
        "I said hush."
        "Lusty noble lads hankering for the fair daughters of men. Peeping at then while they bathed. The wankers."
         Maxine sighed, put down the book, and took his hand. "When you woke me that was all I could think. I had been raped by a supernatural being."
         "Leda and the Swan. Yeats. You were reading Yeats at bedtime."
         "Christ! You are impossible. I"m telling you I did NOT dishevel myself!"
         Hank reached into the fridge for an Anchor Steam beer. He said, "Babe, you're all I have."