Table of Contents or Try From Memory?

“What is the deal with the traffic?” he muttered, alone in his car. It was 6:44pm and that meant he only had sixteen minutes to drive the twenty minutes of pavement that separated him from his destination. “I wanted to be there right now,” he continued.

As predicted, twenty minutes later he arrived. Transforming what should have been a three-point turn into an eleven-point turn, he finally came down off the curb and shifted to park.

“Oh man. I didn’t expect anyone to be dressed up. Oh well,” he thought, seeing a few other stragglers walking up to the building.

Not knowing what to expect, he approached the door and was yet again immediately greeted with a welcoming handshake from a stranger.

“This place is amazing,” he thought.

He knew some of what was going on. He wasn’t dumb. He sat in pews like these week after week for a decade as a child. “It’s just muscle memory,” he could hear the critics say. It felt familiar and familiar feels good. “You go to what you know,” Hollywood wisdom taught about behavior during trying times. But he didn’t care.

“So what?” he thought. “Who cares if I only like this place because it is familiar? Why is that wrong?”

Then he heard it. It couldn’t have been louder than a whisper, but boy was it distinct. When the church was a little fuller on Sundays, it wasn’t as audible. But on this night, it sounded like the crack of thunder.

“Tonight’s,” a pause, “scripture reading,” the man looked up, “is from the Gospel of Luke,” the man stopped. “Turn with me,” he continued, “to Luke chapter eleven,” he took a breath, “where we’ll read,” and another, “verses one through two.”

Pages ruffled.

11 comments

  2. noelleg44

    I really liked this – I was heading off in another direction (perhaps based on the total blockage of I93 in Boston today by some idiots who cemented themselves into barrels), but then you took me somewhere else entirely. The feeling of comfort from returning to some place you’ve been week in and week out was very real to me.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Pingback: Sharing work! January 26, 2015 | The Write Edge Writing Workshop

Leave a comment