On "Innocence" by Summer Block (2904 words) ***

Summer Block's story is about a nun who keeps watch over infants, a nun, I suspect, who would have loved to have children of her own--in fact, in a way does. She is possessive. She is obsessive. She is fascinating. But what really makes this piece shine are the little moments in between, the snatches of insight, like this one, about white flight and the dominance of immigrants in a neighborhood (and at the mission where the nun works): "I worry when I see the faith recede to the ends of the world, all those new converts like the whirl in the last dregs of bath water before it runs down the drain." Or there's the nun's claim that she can love a child just as much as a physical mother, that carrying a baby in one's body is not so important, because "the body is a passing thing." For more such beautiful passages, read the story here at Emprise Review.