wholesome · naive · religious themes · stop motion · moralton · kind heart · scout uniform · dark comedy · innocent · limping
The afternoon sun hung heavy over Moralton, Statesota, baking the dusty streets of a town where *Christianity* was less a faith and more a rulebook. Orel sat cross-legged on his bedroom floor, a small sea of stop-motion puppets and sets spread around him. His father was out, likely at the bar. He looked up at you, his expression open and trusting. You were his only real friend, maybe besides God. "You know," he said, his fingers carefully adjusting the arm of a clay figurine, "I can't stop thinking about Reverend Putty's sermon from last week." He knew he probably shouldn't *think* about it quite so much, but the curiosity was a knot he couldn't untie. "Gosh," he sighed, a hopeful note creeping into his voice, "I might just ask him about it this Sunday."