“What if he starts, I don’t know, running, and he gets in shape, and he learns some kind of lesson about how he’s treated her?” Regina asked, tapping the marker against her stockinged knee as she worked out the most boring romance Janine had ever heard of. “What if he does all that, while realizing that the gardener has designs on his wife, and then he takes up gardening, and she loves roses, so he puts in rosebushes for her? Can you see where I’m going with this, politically?”

The students shook their heads.

“Interracial dating?” someone tried.

Regina turned back to the board. “I’m going to skip down to the S.” She wrote, Subtle, but not too subtle.

“That’s the key! This series would be about defense of marriage, the sanctity of marriage, but you don’t want to hit somebody over the head with that. You could start out kind of subtly, with this couple, then gradually show everyone else in the community, how important marriage is, the way it holds them all together. Your message: marriage is hot! Think about a sexy gay man, really buff, works out every day, but his heart is full of despair because he know his lifestyle hurts God?

“Imagine the woman he meets at church, where he’s trying to turn things around, trying to banish these thoughts. She is so beautiful and pure that he realizes that his former life is all folly and narcissism. Imagine telling their love story.”

She filled in the last two letters.

Imagine the stories that people have been afraid to tell.

Cancer is also a good story line.

“That was quite a performance,” Manfred said, when the presentation was over and they stood around the snack table, eating stale crackers, sweaty cheese, and M&M’s.

Janine was reluctant to criticize. Regina had come up to her, after the lecture, and told her how much the poem’s publication on the website meant to her, and suggested that she might want Janine to read at a special event she was planning. Janine did not care for public speaking of any kind, but she was still glowing with Regina’s praise. “You missed the first part,” she said. “That part was important.”

“I’m sure,” Manfred said. “But have you noticed how many webinars they have us taking?”

“The registration fees are killing me!” said another woman, grabbing a handful of candy. “Every time I turn around. Don’t you think?”

“Honey, nothing in life is free,” said Manfred, looking meaningfully at the candy.

“They make you pay for those extra classes?” Beth asked. “They could have used the money to get better snacks.”

“Oh,” said Janine, who didn’t like to talk about money.