31 Days of August

Day 4: The Church

Day 4: Write a scene in a church.

"Just find a nice Jewish girl, Josh," was all my mom had said. Such a simple task. There were only three requirements: nice, Jewish, and a girl. I was pretty sure that she would be fine if I eventually found a nice Jewish boy, too, but I wasn't gay, so that wasn't an issue or topic that needed to be addressed. Anyways, my task was pretty easy. A nice Jewish girl. It sounded so uncomplicated. And yet, at my first taste of freedom when I ventured away to college, I obviously had to put a stake in my mom's dreams for me.

I hadn't consciously been searching for a nice Jewish girl, but in the back of my mind, I knew that it was a requirement of mine when dating. All my girlfriends in the past had been nice Jewish girls. Well, except for Amanda. She wasn't very nice. In fact, she was a total bitch, which was why we ended up breaking up, even though I told her some BS about wanting to focus on school or whatever. But, yeah, all my girlfriends had fit the mold my mom had instilled in my mind practically the second after my bar mitzvah. And then somehow along the way, I kinda, totally, completely, and utterly shattered one of my mom's guidelines--namely, the "Jewish" part.

It wasn't intended that things would turn out how they had, it was just life. I met Mary, and things went uphill (or downhill, in my mom's case) from there. She was smart and funny and hot and nice and a girl. What more could a guy (or mother) ask for? Mary was also pretty religious. Like, more religious than me--which wasn't really that hard to be, considering I was pretty secular and all. Unfortunately for my pushy Jewish mother, Mary wasn't exactly the type of religious that she had envisioned...which was pretty much how I had landed myself in a church.

"I would absolutely love to sit with you during the service, Josh, but I'm supposed to be with my family," Mary told me with a sympathetic smile. "You understand, don't you?"

"Yeah, totally," I nodded considerately.

"Great," she grinned, pecking me quickly on the lips. "I'm so glad you're here!"

"So am I," I smiled right back at her.

"Chris is going to be so excited to see you!" she gushed happily.

"Yeah, well it's his big day. I'm glad I was invited," I replied, my eyes wondering around to the various stained glass instillations. 

"Why wouldn't you be? My family loves you!" she laughed, taking hold of my hand and guiding me over somewhere. "Now, I would sit you with Vicky, but the last time you two talked, that didn't, uh, end well."

"Yeah," I shuddered, thinking back to the memory. Vicky was one of Mary's cousins, and let's just say that her purity ring wasn't exactly bolted to her finger. The girl had come onto me way too strong, and I was dating Mary, so it was just really awkward. Also, Vicky was still in high school, so that just added to the lack of comfortableness of the situation as a whole.

"So, instead," Mary brightened right up, "I thought that you could sit with our friends, the Meyers! They're Jewish, too!" I forced a tight smile as I gazed at Mary, restricting myself from saying, "Oh? They're Jewish! It's like we're twins or something!" Instead, I just kissed her lightly on the cheek, trying to focus on how nice she was being instead of making me sit next to Vicky for an indefinite period of time.

We walked over to one of the pews, and Mary smiled at the average-looking family who sat there. It was a mom, dad, sister, and brother. Typical in every way imaginable. Just like the rest of us, they were wearing fancy clothes and reading the programs. When the mother finally glanced up from the pamphlet, she smiled at the two of us, her eyes gravitating first to Mary, and then me.

"Mary!" she exclaimed, standing up in order to lean over her two kids and give my girlfriend a hug. "You look beautiful, sweetie!"

"Thanks, Ms. M!" Mary laughed. "So do you!"