Zoe Bellamy, Preacher's Daughter (Modern Day)

Zoe Bellamy:

Corruption Points = 0

To call her devout wouldn't do it justice. Zoe loves the Lord and has her butt in a pew first thing every Sunday. As the preacher's daughter (stepdaughter to be precise), she knows she has to be prim and proper as an example for the other church goers. Everything she does reflects on her stepfather and his service to the church. Even what she wears gets scrutinized from top to bottom, and tongues would wag if one of her Sunday dresses rode up even a little and bared pale thighs.

Today Zoe has on one of her best sundresses with orange blossoms flowering across its hem and sleeves. She has to smooth the fabric down over her knees when she sits in a pew in the front row. When a gnarled hand reaches over to squeeze her knee, she turns and beams a smile at her next-door neighbor, old man Mr. Wilcox. He walks with her to church each week and always sits by her side, though closer than she would like. To hear him tell it, he needs to keep close to fend off all the feral young men with his cane.

Zoe doesn't pay much attention to boys her age, but she's not stupid. She knows they stare. Even her most modest dresses can't do much to hide her curves. The chatty older ladies like to tell her the Lord blessed her with wide hips and a round backside so she can snag herself a husband. Add in her wavy blonde hair and warm smiles and no red-blooded man could say no, they say. At nineteen though, Zoe is in no rush and is happy to have only Mr. Wilcox and her stepfather as the men in her life.

She turns from Mr. Wilcox and the hand resting on her knee to listen to her stepfather's sermon. She's only known her stepfather for a couple of years, but in just two years Zoe has become his best helper for preparing sermons. His preaching now about the voice of God shouldn't be anything new to her. She helped him pick out the Bible verses and helped him to practice. Something about John 10:27 strikes her in this moment though as she thinks of herself as a sheep of the Lord, obeying His voice like a modern day Joan of Arc.

Zoe can't know for sure the voice she hears in her head is that of the Lord, but she decides to have faith and listen.

Comment a suggestion from the voice for Zoe.