Chapter 9

Gary left the house on Friday morning not knowing what the day would bring. He still felt uncomfortable with the current situation between him, his wife, their children, and the Willets. If the public were to get word of any of this, it would bring disaster to him, to his family and the church. Having an affair with Shirley was bad enough but what was even worse was the fact that he was also having sexual relations with their fifteen-year-old daughter, Heather. All of that was bad, but if anyone ever found out that he and Helen were also involved with their own children there was no other outcome than a lengthy prison sentence.

He noticed the church mail lying in the middle of his desk as he sat down and started to go through it. A particular correspondence with the High Meadow Camp and Retreat on it caught his attention. High Meadow Camp was where he reconnected with Mike Hazel. Mike was the former pastor of Wildwood and the man who gave his name to the selection committee when he resigned.

Gary sat back in his chair as memories of the camp came to his mind.

Nine Months Earlier

Gary needed a vacation and to get away from his closed-minded congregation that imposed strict rules for his family that was not implemented to anyone else in the church. He had to get away from the 24/7 no questions asked obligation and almost unbearable levels of judgment his family endured.

He just entered the auditorium on the first Monday evening when Mike Hazel came up to him. He and Mike had been friends in college and Gary was genuinely glad to see him again after all these years. After college, Gary went to a seminary in the south, and Mike had gone to one in Missouri. Like many friendships, they drifted apart and only heard from each other through Christmas cards or the occasional letter.

“Mike!” Gary said, extending his hand. “I had no idea I would run into you here.”

“It’s good to see you too,” Mike said, shaking the other man’s hand.

They chatted for a few minutes before they went in to listen to the first of many uplifting, inspirational talks of the week. After the meeting let out, Gary and Mike found a table in the dining area to talk.

“Tell me,” Mike said. “How do you like the church you’re pastoring?”

Gary looked at his old friend for several moments and then opened up. He expressed his displeasure with the congregant’s inability to be open to new ideas. He opened up about his frustrations of constantly being under the microscope, of the judgment if he allowed his children to go somewhere or do something someone in the church didn’t like. He expressed his great frustration with their lack of adequate financial support.

Mike sat and listened to Gary’s complaints. He asked the appropriate questions when needed but he mainly let Gary air his frustrations. This was the purpose of this camp; to let pastors be men and to let them vent with other like-minded men. Mike and Gary found themselves at the same table in the dining area after the evening lecture where Mike encouraged Gary to open up more about what he wanted in his ministry. He probed to see if the ministry was Gary’s true calling. At the end of the week, as the two men were saying goodbye, Mike looked at him and said. “Hang in there Pastor. I’m sure good things are about to come to you.”

Less than a month later, Gary received a phone call from Jeff Willet asking if he would be interested in being interviewed for the Senior Pastor of Wildwood Baptist Church. It was in this interview that he learned that his old friend Mike Hazel had recommended him to the selection committee upon his resignation. It seemed Mike had taken the position of director at the High Meadow Camp and Retreat.

Present

Gary opened the letter and found an invitation to spend a week at the camp for him and his whole family. The date of the invitation was in two weeks, which gave him plenty of time to talk to Helen and to make arrangements for a guest preacher. He also thought it would be the perfect time to get away and figure out what to do with their current situation.

Two weeks later the Hanson family arrived at the High Meadow Camp and Retreat around noon on Monday. Helen and the children were as excited as he was about the week in the mountains. Gary parked the car in front of the administration building and noticed there were only two other cars there.

“Gary,” Helen asked in a hesitant voice. “Isn’t that the Willets car?”

“It sure looks like it,” he admitted, not liking it at all.

They entered the building together and saw the Willets sitting with Mike Hazel and his wife Tracy.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Shirley giggled as she rose to her feet and kissed Gary on the lips.

“What are you doing here?” he asked Shirley, as he looked at Mike.

“We invited them,” Mike said, with a sly grin. “I hope it’s not going to be a problem.”

Gary looked at his wife, then glanced at his teenage children. “We were hoping for some time alone.”

“I’m hurt,” Shirley said sarcastically. “I thought I meant more than that to you.”

Mike smiled as an older teenage girl entered the room. “This is our daughter, Beverly,” he said to the Hanson family. “Bev, will you show Lois and Brian to cabin four, please. We need to have a chat with their parents.”

“Certainly,” came her chipper voice. “If you’ll follow me?

Lois and her brother looked at their parents who nodded their heads to let them know it was okay to go with the girl. The adults were quiet until they left the building.

“What’s going on here,” Helen asked.

Shirley gave the pastor’s wife a wry grin as she ran fingers along Gary’s jawline. “Tell them, Mike.”

All eyes turned to the director of the retreat. “Please, sit down,” he motioned to the chairs around the table. He continued when everyone found a seat.

“Tell me if any of this sounds familiar,” he paused until he knew he had everyone’s attention.

“We, Tracy and I, were very excited about coming to Wildwood. We came from a small church in the Midwest where we were very frustrated by not being allowed to minister the way we wanted to. We had a lot to offer our congregation but they were not open to change.”

“Yeah, sounds very familiar,” Gary said, looking at his wife.

“When we came to Wildwood, we became close friends with Jeff and Shirley. It wasn’t long until we were either at their house playing games, sharing a meal, or just having fun with friends,” he told his guests. “Like most friendships, we started sharing secrets with each other. Things that you only share with people you truly trust. I believe it was Jeff who first mentioned he was having doubts about the Bible and his faith in the Hebrew God. Of course, I tried to explain to him that we all go through times when our faith is weak and during those times we needed to lean on friends to help us through the hard times.”

“We spent many an afternoon together,” Jeff said. “But nothing he said made sense to me anymore. Shirley was always the stronger one when it came to the Christian way of life but when I told her of my doubts, she surprised me by saying she too was losing faith in God.”

“Heather came home with an assignment to research Roman mythology. I was helping her decide what God or Goddess she should write her paper on when we stumbled on Diana.” Shirley told them.

“Diana?” Gary said, “The Goddess of maidens, the moon and of the hunt?”

“That’s her,” Shirley said with a smile in his direction. “The more I read about her, the more I researched her and the more I realized I have been worshipping the wrong God.”

“Shirley came to my office one afternoon and spoke to me about her decision to follow Diana,” Mike said. “I was shocked by what she was telling me but made a deal with me.”

“What kind of deal?” Gary asked.

“She told me she had constructed a small shrine to Diana in a room in their basement. She went on to describe what she had been doing to show her new God her devotion. I won’t go into all the details right now but she convinced me to accept her deal.”

“What was the deal?” Gary asked again.

“The deal was,” Jeff spoke up. “If I could seduce Tracy, they would give Diana a chance.”

“How long did you last,” Helen asked, looking Tracy in the eye.

“I was able to resist Jeff’s advances for several weeks but, I finally gave him what he wanted whenever he wanted it,” Tracy said, not looking anyone in the eye.

“When Mike gave us your name to consider as a pastor, he told us that he thought you would be perfect to join us,” Shirley told them. “So we made that our goal.”

“Tell us the truth,” Tracy said, as she stepped next to Helen. “Didn’t you just love it the first time you felt Jeff’s cock slide into you? Or the first time he came in your mouth?”

Helen grinned at Jeff as she said, “I still do.”

“Didn’t it turn you on in a very naughty way to tell your husband about the first time?”