And Ghost remains extremely unconvinced! 

When the session is over, she calls in Marlo.

"...Honestly," she says, "I was not expecting you to be the person whose conversion was most difficult."

"I imagine," he says, not unsympathetically. "I assume it would be a breach of confidentiality for you to tell me who you were assuming it would be?" His money's on Sasha but Asher is a decent runner-up. 

"Yes, it would. --I'm not going to lie, I'm not sure what to do with you. Normally, by this point in the program, people like you have run away with Ron." 

"I'm not trying to fight you, I'm happy to stick the session out." He files away the casual familiarity with Ron to ask about if there's a natural moment. 

"You're not going to fight me, you just have no intentions of even trying to be heterosexual and there is nothing I can do to change this."

"It sounds silly when you put it like that, yes, but I do mean it." 

"So I suppose we can do what you like with the rest of the session."

He nods. "Out of curiosity, how do you and Ron know each other?" 

"He's my brother."

...Oh. Huh. 

"You said earlier that your homosexuality damaged your relationship with your brother. He doesn't really seem like the type." 

"Ron is the reason I went to ex-gay camp."

"...he still doesn't seem like the type, but people change I guess." 

"He was afraid that if I continued in my previous lifestyle I would become addicted to heroin, contract HIV, and die. Our parents would pay for ex-gay camp. He thought I would hate him for it afterward but at least it would give me some time to get older and perhaps want to make more responsible decisions. So he told them where I was." She pauses. "I didn't end up hating him for it."

He debates whether to tell her why Ron runs the ex-ex-gay camp. 

"...he still worries about you. He doesn't talk about you much but it's — not hard to tell." 

"I imagine he does. I am concerned about him, since he never did come out of homosexuality."

He tries to imagine a similar situation with Alana, and mostly fails. Drums his fingers on the table. 

"My big sister went off to college last year," he says. He's not looking at Christine's face. "She's home for the summer, I was hoping to get to spend it with her. We skype every couple of weeks but I still miss her a lot. 

If there's anything you want to say to Ron I can try to tell him." 

"I don't know, what do you say?" She sighs. "I love him. He should forgive himself. I'm sorry he wound up with a straight sister instead of a gay brother."

He nods. "Okay.

...thank you." 

"Why?"

"If it had been that long since I'd talked to Alana — I'd want to hear from her. That's all." 

"I can't imagine he wants to hear from me that badly. I spent four years giving him sleepless nights from entirely justified worry, and I've spent the last decade and a half torturing children into being heterosexual."

"Maybe," he says, and his face has gone very soft. "But if it was Lon, I wouldn't care. I'd just want to know she was okay." 

"You can tell him I'm joyfully serving God."

"I will."