"Blessed Sabbatical, Master Jabber," Ronda said, rubbing her belly.

Master Jabber was standing in front of an alter of the Resting God, preparing to kneel before his absent deity. A very pregnant Ronda, already kneeling on a nearby prie-dieu, had greeted him as he entered the chapel. A few other worshippers prayed or sat on benches, doing rosaries.

Master Jabber half shrugged. "Is it though? I mean God went on vacation, what's so blessed about that?"

"You don't think God deserves to rest?"

"Well, yes, I'd hazard that running the universe would be exhausting. But it's been a couple hundred years now. The fact that God's not back is kind of disturbing, don't you think?"

"Not for me," Ronda said, looking down as she rubbed her full belly again.

"Well yes, you have other concerns don't you?" Master Jabber said.

"Oh it's not just being pregnant. It's my husband, he's a demon."

"Ah, and if God returned, your husband would have to hightail it back to the underworld?"

"Exactly."

"Well, then, may God rest for all eternity."

"Amen." She beamed at him.

"Do you know what you're going to call it?"

"It? You mean the baby?"

"Uh, is it a baby? I thought it was an imp?"

Ronda's smile froze. "Imps are babies. They're just demonic ones. And besides, it's never clear which way they'll go until they're born."

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Master Jabar lowered his voice, looking around at the other parishioners before saying, "And which would you prefer?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Well, how do you want it to pop out? Imp or baby?"

"Imps are babies," Ronda said again, her eyes going hard.

"If you say so."

Ronda turned away from him to face the empty alter. "I'm going to pray now. May God accept your worship when He returns."

"Yours as well," Jabber said perfunctorily as he knelt on his prie-dieu, taking his rosary out.

A couple minutes later, and not even a tenth of the way through a thousand and one repetitions of the Prayer of Power, Jabber was disturbed to hear sloshing sounds coming from Ronda's direction. He opened his eyes to see Ronda sprinkling her face with Holy Water.

"What . . . what the hell are you doing?"

She looked at him, half-startled. "What does it look like? I'm blessing myself."

"I can see that but don't you think you should be a little careful?"

"How do you mean?"

"You can't use that stuff." Jabber pointed to her belly, pushing out beneath her robes. "It's bad for your little imp in there."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you know . . . holy water isn't exactly great for demons."

"I'll have you know my midwife said it's perfectly safe and, anyways, I need it to bless my complexion."

"Well maybe you should ask your husband what he thinks about it. Does he know?"

"Frankly, it's none of your business," Ronda growled as she proceeded to vigorously rub her arms and neck with Holy Water. "My imp, my responsibility."

Master Jabber shook his head and tried to return to his rosaries.

Nearby Ronda continued to douse her body as she muttered blessings to herself and her child. When she reached beneath her robes and began rubbing her belly with the water too, he couldn't take it any longer.

Standing abruptly, he thrust his rosary into his pocket. "I can't watch this."

"Blessed Sabbatical," she called after him as he hurried off.

"Yeah, yeah, Blessed Sabbatical to you too," he said, waving her words away.