Father Anthony's Sin

About the Book

Eighteen-year-old Anthony DeMeo is the son of Lucy DeMeo, a widowed self-employed seamstress, who learned of her sons interest in enlisting into the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army during World War II.  Being he was her only child, she was averse to his decision.  Being Catholic, she did not approve of killing and the possibility of losing her son.

Having studied music (the accordion), Anthony was already skilled enough to play professionally with older, more experienced musicians right up to the time he graduated high school in 1943 and joined the Navy.  The instrument would be part of his luggage for years.

His close friend, Frankie Forte, also the son of a widowed woman, gave hints to his mother that he would like to become a priest, much to his mothers chagrin.  Both young men did attend church and other religious activities as a normal course of family lifestyles.  In either case, the mothers were saddened.

In time, Anthony was shipped to boot camp and joined the Seabees, a branch of the Navys Construction Battalions.  His training was a combination of Naval and Marine wartime routines.  That, in preparation to be shipped to California, leading to deployment to the battle- stricken South Pacific.

Just before leaving the West Coast, he was invited to join a Seabee friends wife and two neighbors for a weekend.  The wifes neighbor managed to seduce young Anthony for two days.  The gratuitous experience with the 35-year-old woman, though highly enjoyable, did leave a moral glitch on his Catholic conscience.

Then, after a day off from training, Anthony and a buddy or two took in Hollywood and soaked in some of the high points of the glamorous atmosphere available.  Anthony was sure to visit a church in the meantime, for hookers were in season and he resisted their, You want a date?

Time came to ship off to New Guinea, then to the Philippine Islands where, one day, as a qualified 30-caliber machine gunner defending a beachhead of their camp, Anthony cut down several die-hard Japanese attackers.  Killing the enemy so efficiently brought praise from his officers and many of the Seabees also involved.  But the incident lay heavy on his mind.  The company Chaplain was consulted and advised him to seek a Catholic priest to ease his conscience about the killings.

Powerful new experiences both exciting and horrendous began to increase in his psyche but were suppressed by the overwhelming war effort.

It was during that period that he became strangely attracted to a very lovely native girl of fifteen, Adele.  What was first a forbidden fraternization grew into a passionate sexual relationship.  Another emotional impact!

Orders to be relocated to another country (after the drop of the atom bomb that ended the war in the Pacific) led to painfully saying farewell to Adele.  Anthony was shipped to Tsingtoa, China in the northern coast of the Yellow Sea.

During the long ocean voyage on board the ship, there were times when Anthony gave thought to his illicit affair with Adele to further muddle his religious beliefs dealing with fornication  now wondering if he had protected sex or not.  The restless menacing Yellow Sea suppressed the wondering for a time.

Soon after settling into a residential holding camp in Tsingtoa, China, a resort area known as the City of Sin with its widespread legalized prostitution, Anthony and his close friend out of Tennessee participated in a virtually full-time sex career.  Bored, awaiting being shipped back to the States, it seemed to be the single pacifier for some nine months.

The cumulative effect of such a lifestyle tended to further conflict between his religious beliefs and the gross temptations so readily available.  An admonition he recalled by his mother before leaving her came to mind: Stay away from le femini del notte!  Little did Mrs. DeMeo realize

About the Author

Received B.S. degree in Advertising, Seton Hall University. Employed as Copywriter for four Pharmaceutical and Health-related firms totaling 11 years. Wrote and art-directed many ad campaigns for various businesses while writing fiction part-time. Attended New York University’s Masters Program advanced studies in Health Education. Wrote (non-published) several novels: The Appaloosa Kid (setting: circa 1876); The Flea Marketeers (comedy); The Godson (comedy screenplay); Father Anthony’s Sin (setting: circa 1943-46). In development: The Wisdom Bench (comedy), and The Wyakin Revenge (sequel to The Appaloosa Kid).