Excerpt from Songs of the Dead

Dreaming About Boundaries (p. 178)

From chapter "Colleen "

Jack is dreaming about boundaries. He is dreaming about God. He is dreaming about God telling Israelites—His Chosen People—to kill women who have had intercourse with men. He is dreaming about intercourse. He is dreaming about men having intercourse with women. He is dreaming about Israelites killing women who’ve had intercourse. He is dreaming about God telling Jack—one of His Chosen People—that he must do the same.

Jack knows why. Even in this dream he knows why. He has always known why. It all comes down to boundaries. Who has them, and who does not. Virgins have intact boundaries. Those boundaries must be broken. And when those boundaries are broken, the women must be killed. Why? Because their boundaries have been broken. Because the women have been contaminated.

So many people think God hates women. But Jack is dreaming of God, and God is dreaming through Jack, and Jack knows the truth. God hates women, all right, but God especially hates men. Why else do you think God wants men to kill women who have had sex with men? Isn’t it obvious? The women have been contaminated. By who? By men.

Jack stirs, wakes up enough to check whether Missy is making any sounds, then falls back into his dreams, of God, of women, of men, of hatred, of boundaries breaking like glass.