Storytelling for Week 13: Pester Hrynne

Pester Hrynne

(Pester Hrynne [Hester Prynne from the Scarlet Letter] before her and her brother's exile)

Charles knew he had a problem. His younger sister was always rather attractive to him. More attractive than she should have been considering the hereditary relationship. He was a priest as well, so this was an especially immoral situation to be in. He fought his urge to act on his feelings for his sister for many years. As she continued to grow into a young woman, though, resistance became futile.

One day Charles broke. I will spare you the details of the horrendous act he committed on his sister. I will tell you, however, that Charles and his sisters' lives were changed forever on that day.

Time went on and neither brother nor sister spoke a word of what had occurred. If words were to slip, both of their reputations would be tainted, if not destroyed, in a heartbeat and they would be sent into exile. Because of their silence, Charles relaxed as time went on and no longer worried about the ramifications of his actions. That is until two months after the act had been committed.

Charles' younger sister was with child. He panicked. His sister was distraught but slightly excited at the idea of having a child. Just not with her brother. Charles, not sharing in any of his sibling's excitement, sat down to create a plan.

He decided that the two of them were going to play the second Virgin Mary card. His little sister would claim to be a virgin in front of the entire congregation of the church during Charles' next service. Being the mastermind of this plan, he would not blaspheme the Lord because he would use a book instead of a Bible and use regular water during the ceremony than Holy water. This would make the ritual of his sister's testimony seem true to the congregation, she would be hailed the new mother of Christ, and Charles' would be the honored priest that officiated the ceremony. It was a perfect plan.

The day of the ceremony came and the little sister knelt at the alter with her large belly in front of her brother. He asked her to swear on the "Bible" (book) that she was a virgin and no one had touched her. She swore to this statement with "No man has touched me more than my brother would" and was washed with the "Holy water" (drinking water). The congregation, not considering incest to be an option, were instantly in awe of the pregnant woman and her belly.

There was one bishop in the sanctuary that held a spot of suspicion, however. The bishop could not get over the young girl's phrase of "No man has touched me more than my brother would". He had a gut feeling that the brother had indeed touched her in the way needed for a baby to be conceived. He acted on his suspicion and listened in on the pastor's conversation with his sister that night. What he overheard were the plans of the two siblings to keep their baby a secret.

"I will be our baby's father by assuming the position of adoptive father in front of the congregation. That way I can sincerely fulfill my paternal duties without guilt and under the approval of the congregation. All will be well."

The bishop with his newly acquired knowledge ran to inform the congregation of what he had heard. The next day during Charles' sermon, the congregation interrupted him and began the confrontation. Everything came crashing down and Charles was denounced as the church's pastor and the brother and sister were sent into exile with their incestuous child.

Author's Note: Yeah, I know this is a weird story...it's based off of The Virgin With Child in the Queen's Stories Unit. This was a very unsettling story to when I read it. I decided to switch it up a bit and let the audience know the entire time what was going on. The original story does not let the reader know that there is incest until the very end. I did not like that surprise, so I changed it! And the ending is different, too. In the original, the pastor just openly admits to his fraud when asked, which is dumb since he went through so much to cover the secret to begin with. I invented the bishop to eavesdrop in order to make the story more interesting.