Une Fleure Fanée

Week 13 Part 1 (Sunday)

     I give a horrified face of shock and disgust as our Ubers arrive. Sarah winces as the hair falls on her burn and she quickly pulls on silver sandals, running to catch up with us. We get into this humongous van that holds all of us. Convenient.

     I sit next to Pressley and we take a bunch of selfies together while the humongous Uber is driving us to church. After Pressley and I are done taking selfies, I look outside the window. It's cloudy, yet the architecture is beautiful.

     The bricks and the stone and the people. Pressley and I keep pointing out stuff that looks pretty. More churches and department stores, stained glass and horses. All so pretty and magical. It's a nice break from my reality.

     Eventually, after half an hour of having some actual fun, we see a big tan building with a lot of stained glass. Ms. Abby is outside of it, looking dressed up, along with Ms. Gianna. Church time!

     We all gingerly step out the bus, trying our best to not ruin our dresses as we walk out. Ms. Abby lights up at the sight of our dresses. She claps excitedly.

     "You guys look so cute!" Ms. Abby exclaims, and I smile.

     "Pictures!" The moms exclaim, holding up their phones.

     Ms. Gianna steps aside and I get in Ms. Abby's lap. I'm way too short to stand on the ground with everybody. I put on one of my fake smiles, by far the fakest I've ever done. We stand there for a minute. Cameras flashing in our face make it almost unbearable to keep my eyes open.

     "Ok, ok, why don't we go in and go to church?" Ms. Abby suggests, and we all nod.

     "Now, remember, you are in the Lord's house. Be respectful., quiet, no goofing around. And here's a quarter for communion. Do not steal it!" Ms. Abby warns us.

     We walk in and there are a few people there. We all find a pew in the back to sit, and there's a choir singing some hymns. I went to church once when I was four, but I don't remember much of it. Dance got in the way. You have too many sins for God to love you, Lilliana.

     After about ten minutes, the choir stops and a plate is passed around. People are putting money on the plate. It must be communion. When it comes around to us, we all drop our quarters into the plate and pass it to the next pew.

     Once that's over, a man in a suit steps up to the podium. He introduces himself as Father Christian. All of a sudden, he starts going into this monologue about Easter and him realizing the importance of Easter.

     Father Christian speaks, "Easter was one of the best times of year when my boys were little. We used to wake up early the day before to get good spots in line at the neighborhood Easter egg hunt... my boys would come home with candy by the bag full. After the egg hunts we'd come home to my wife having boiled what seemed like a hundred eggs, decorate them until late afternoon, and eat these silly marshmallow peeps over some movie. I never really liked those peeps, but the boys loved them, and it wasn't Easter without them.

     As boys often do, they started growing up and egg hunts, decorating hard boiled eggs, and eating marshmallow peeps became a thing of the past. We tried to substitute family dinners where girlfriends... fiances... and later wives started joining. Now that they've all moved away, we take turns having Easter at all of our houses, but it's just not the same anymore. A lot of things haven't been for quite some time... and the more that I've tried to shake my feelings of unsettledness the more I'm realizing the marshmallow peeps and the egg hunts wouldn't make them go away even if I could go back to share them with my boys again.

     The cloud of uneasiness remained until our Easter trip this year to visit our eldest Jacob in Kent. He sat me down and started telling me the story of Easter... how a man named Jesus died and the came alive again to save us... and something inside of me began to stir.