Sister Barnes

Not to be completely weird, but can your wife please just step in the room, say hello and walk us to the back of the house? I’m not trying to be silly, I promise, I’m really not, but there are rules we follow, and we were upfront with them.

Mr. Reed

I will ask. [turns back] Can I ask you a question first? Do you…still believe that my wife is in the next room? Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the scented candle, the absence of an oven with blueberry pie? Or have you been politely indulging a lie? If you still believe that she’s in there, I’ll go ask, but it’s something I want you to think about and maybe think about in the context of your beliefs. Do you believe in God because somebody told you at an impressionable age that God is real, despite having doubts as you got older, despite…seeing evidence to the contrary your whole lives? When your father lost control of his body, did you think it was God’s plan to ruin his life? Or did you go on believing something that you know is not true just to give you comfort because you were afraid of what it might mean if it was all a lie? I put the scented candle on the table because I wanted you to think about the things that you believe just because somebody asked you to believe them.