I just got back from the church. I thought that since it was a Monday when everyone disappeared that the church would have been empty. But I forgot about their food pantry. The food pantry operated on a slightly irregular schedule. Most times it was on Wednesday or Saturday. But sometimes they would get deliveries on other days. As I said it's a small church and they don't have a lot of room to store things and no freezers at all. So if they get a big delivery or a lot of frozen goods they call up everybody on their lists to distribute the food as quickly as possible. The parking was was full. the warm and damp weather had done a job on the frozen food and dry goods left outside. I did not go in the pantry. The church doors were unlocked as I expected. I hesitated to go inside, knowing what I would find.
Empty clothes littered the floor. The chairs were still arranged in neat rows as the pastor liked them. I recognized the pastor's jacket on the floor next to another pile of clothes in the back. It looked like they were in the middle of prayer when it came. It was the way he would have wanted to go.
I checked out the bulletin board. There was a note stating that the monthly Pancake Dinner on the 29th was canceled because the pastor and his wife would be out of town. Maybe he knew something.
I looked over the prayer list and was shocked to see my name on it. I guess I thought the Pastor had given up on me. He called every Saturday for a year after Lisa and Chris died. He even came by the house a couple of times before it was foreclosed own. He had gradually tapered off to once a month. It had been at least three months since his last call.
From there I stopped at a liquor store. I have every intention of finishing off this bottle of Crown Royal tonight.
© 2009 R. Keith McBride
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