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Pandora took the opportunity to look around the draughty church at the rest of the villagers. Adults and children alike were all smartly dressed and standing rigidly upright as they waited for the service to begin, all eyes fixed at the front of the church, row after row of expectant faces waiting patiently.
    “Let us pray,” said a voice, startling Pandora, who had been gazing about her. She looked to the front of the church and saw the vicar was now in the pulpit. “Our Father,” he began, and Pandora lost interest.
    Pandora was rather uncertain on the whole issue of god. She didn’t consider herself an unbeliever, as such. She was just reserving judgement until she had more to go on. For one thing, why were there so many religions to choose from? Why didn’t god appear in the sky and let everyone know exactly which god he was and how people should behave? After all, Christians, Muslims and Jews all sincerely believed that their version of god was right, so at least two religions had to be wrong, possibly all three, which wasn’t fair on devout believers who were born into the wrong religion. It didn’t make any sense.
    Pandora’s thoughts were so absorbing, she failed to see her family leaning forward, their faces rapt in attention, and a strange blue light tracing around them, which pulsed in time with the vicar’s voice, filling the pew and keeping their attention fixed on the vicar’s every word.

Chapter Thirteen
     
     
    “There, wasn’t that good?” exclaimed Mrs Laskaris as they left the church and joined the line to shake hands with the vicar, the Reverend Aubrey Cope.
    Pandora rubbed her eyes, wondering why there seemed to be a blue tint to the air. She decided it was probably just the dazzle of the bright sunshine after the gloomy church.
    “Now, we mustn’t be late for Aunt Mabel,” continued Mrs Laskaris in a loud voice so people could overhear. “Thank you, Reverend, that was a lovely sermon.”
    “I sincerely hope you all took something from it,” replied Reverend Cope with a rather private and unpleasant smile. He looked sharply at Mr Laskaris, who smiled and nodded.
    “Yes, yes, much food for thought, my goodness me, yes,” he said.
    Pandora looked at her father and wondered why he was talking in broken sentences. Another unpleasant surprise followed immediately.
    “Thank you, sir,” chorused the twins, standing straight and holding their hands in front of their pretty pink dresses. Pandora almost choked at the twins’ demure posture and grave faces.
    Reverend Cope nodded, a smile of satisfaction on his lips, which faded as he looked at Pandora.
    “Have you nothing to say?” he asked.
    Pandora shrugged. She didn’t care for the look of hunger in his eyes. She suspected he wanted them at the church simply as numbers for his flock rather than as individuals to be welcomed. She thought for a few moments before asking, “How do you know you’re right, given that other religions exist? I mean, how can you be really certain?”
    “Pandora!” gasped her mother in outrage as the Reverend Cope’s mouth dropped open in shock. “How dare you ask such a thing of the vicar?”
    “How else am I going to find things out?” asked Pandora in bafflement at her mother’s attitude.
    “Do not worry, Mrs Laskaris,” smiled Reverend Cope, though his smile was rather tight, as though screwed into place, and more resembled a snarl. “Children have much to learn, and it is a delight to hear a child asking their unformed questions.”
    “Then what’s the answer?” challenged Pandora, feeling her temper rise at the vicar’s condescending tone and her mother’s behaviour.
    “This is hardly the place for such a conversation,” snapped the vicar, who seemed to be strangely rattled at being questioned. “Suffice to say that a close study of scripture reveals all.”
    “Really? Then why are there so many disagreements about religion?”
    “I do not have the time to discuss the mysterious