secondary characters

Something I'm struggling with in the WIP is my Trinidad's moral compass. He is a killer-a soldier for God. He knows no other life or way of being and he's very defensive of that precarious balance. I sense that is the root of his entire arc, for him to rectify what he is (soldier) with who he is (faithful). One thing I have not shown much yet is his faithfulness. It's got to be treated lightly--no preaching from me!--but I want him to find comfort in his Christian faith. But for him faith will become a prison, because he learns he may be tied to something not real to him--in the sense that it is not perfect. He's a bit of a black-and-white perfectionist, our Trinidad. He likes the static. I'm learning not only does he like his ducks in a row, but he often wants someone else to line them up for him. That, so far, has been Father Troy.

For Troy, I draw on the youth minister at my childhood church. He was all about listening and exposure to different faiths. Unfortunately so much of it has faded away, but I remember the impression of mutual respect between he and the leaders of the churches we attended. We talked less about religion in Sunday school than you'd think. We talked about social stuff, and our next retreat and our mission trip to the reservation. We talked about Satan, and some of those early talks formed my opinion that evil are merely a frame of mind, demonized and humanized by people who need to put a face on hatred. Mostly he provided the Church as a safe zone for a young girl in a world of hurt and teenaged angst. He was kindness, realized in a minister. And Father Troy is kind. Even the Wiccans respond to him--people who should hate him.

Troy as the one who constantly refocus Trinidad's faith back into hia thoughts and deeds, but he pays a personal price for it. Being a bridge between a shaky church and its dynamic, essential soldier exacerbates his personal anxieties--affecting his health and his own faith. He worries over his protogee--Trin would be the son he never had--whether their faith, collectively and personally, can withstand Trinidad's discovery and actions. Torn between heart and his church, the Father's faith will be tested perhaps more than our protag's, and Trinidad will simply have to learn to live without it. Troy will make a sacrifice, and become one, in order to see a new order of faith come about, but of course it will be up to our protag to see that sacrifice was not in vain.