A/N: This is a short fanfic for the movie God’s Not Dead. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that a movie like that would give me lots of ideas. As such, this does contain spoilers, specifically about the Muslim family. It’s told from the perspective of the son in the family. Enjoy…
Cracks in the Coffin
Why did I do it?
I don’t know.
I didn’t want her to get hurt.
But I never imaged how far he would go.
I thought it would be fun to annoy her, figure out what kind of secrets that she kept on her phone. I’d noticed for a while that any time I’d come into her room she’d grab the phone off the bed and press some buttons on it really fast.
Even from the other side of the wall, I could hear the voices coming from her headphones, and I knew they weren’t a person singing.
I was curious, wondering what she was doing in there after school. I thought it might be fun to bug her too, it’s not the first time I’ve done something like that.
But then I saw something that didn’t make sense. The word Corinthians. I’d heard it before, but wasn’t sure quite where.
Before I could explore her phone further, she yanked it out of my hand, and made me promise that I wouldn’t tell Father. She seemed frantic, desperate, so I agreed. Of course, I didn’t really mean it, in fact, it made me even more curious.
So, I told Father.
I don’t remember the exact words I told him; just that it had something to do with Corinthians, which got him really mad, though I saw him crying a little bit too. I didn’t know what it meant and I was afraid to ask him. That night, I saw him praying to Allah, asking why this had to happen, how he had failed.
I didn’t want to put the pieces together, though it should have been obvious what my sister had been doing.
That next day, that’s when it all happened. He burst into her room, and I smiled a bit, kind of happy that she was getting into trouble. Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t feel that way, but I did. At least at first.
Then he began yelling, and even hitting her. She was speaking of the prophet Jesus, that he was the one to offer forgiveness for our sins.
Then it all made sense.
Corinthians, a book from the Christian scriptures.
She had been hiding it from us all.
She promised me not to tell, the deepest fear I’d ever seen from her expressed through her desperate words.
She was a Christian.
Soon he threw her out of our house when she wouldn’t proclaim that Allah was the one true god.
After that…I don’t know what happened to her.
I hope she found somewhere to go. But where could she go? We moved here recently, when she started collage. Maybe she had some friends there or something. Was this what Allah wanted? Was this how we were to treat our family? Allah deserves our every praise for all that he gives us. Our desire to serve him should surpass the love for even our family.
Why would she throw her family away for such a crazy belief?
Why would she turn against the Prophet Mohammad?
Unless, it was true.
What were those words that she’d listen to in secret?
Dad was at work, he wouldn’t be home for a while. So while he was away, I pulled out my phone, and typed the word Corinthians into the search bar.
