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Esther
Esther was disappointed with herself for how upset she was. Her mind tried to tell her that she was overreacting, but her emotions disagreed. She tried to watch television, but she kept right on crying. Her church. Her beloved church was gone. Her home was gone.
She made a TV dinner and ate it on the couch. When she’d finished, she wasn’t quite full, so she made another.
Then, her stomach full and her heart broken, she lay down on the couch. Her eyelids grew heavy, and, still listening to the rerun, she drifted off to sleep.
She was in church, but it wasn’t her church. When she realized that Russell was sitting beside her, fresh tears sprang to her eyes. She looked up at him and gasped—he looked thirty-five! He looked down at her and smiled, and then patted her knee. She looked down at his hand and saw her own legs. They were young too! She wrapped her hand around his and relished the warmth of it. Then she looked around the sanctuary. She didn’t recognize it. They must be visiting a different church. But wow, wasn’t it full! A large family sat in the pew in front of them. The father had his arm around the mother, and four little girls sat beside them. Only the one on the end fidgeted. The little girl caught Esther staring and gave her a small smile. Looking in this direction, Esther realized her own children were in the pew beside her. As she gazed at them, a baby behind her began to wail. The sound of it made her heart leap. When was the last time she’d heard a baby in church? She turned to look at the infant, who had been handed off to a grandmother now, who gently rocked her arms from side to side. The baby stopped crying and started trying to grab the feathers that sprang out of her grandmother’s hatband. Hiding her laughter, Esther turned front again as a candy wrapper rustled nearby and a mother shushed her child. Somewhere, someone snored softly. Esther had forgotten how beautiful a full sanctuary could sound.
The service ended, and Russell stood, still holding her hand. He let several people pass and then stepped into the aisle. He paused and motioned for her to go first. She did, but she slid her left hand into his before letting go with her right. She didn’t want to let go of his hand. She didn’t want to let go of him. She didn’t trust him not to disappear again.
After checking to make sure her children were following, she led them outside into the brilliant sunshine and the smell of freshly cut grass and instantly she recognized the street. It was the street she lived on now, but it looked different. Some of the houses were different colors, and one of them was new altogether—or was it old?
The cars were old, but they looked shiny and new. She gasped and looked up at Russ. They were in a different time! How was this possible? Was she dreaming? If so, she didn’t want to wake up. He looked so handsome.
Her phone rang, and she tried to ignore it. She knew then that this was a dream, and she didn’t want to leave it. Looking at Russ’s face, she saw the church behind him. It was the old one, the one that had been abandoned. But it didn’t look old or abandoned now. It was grand with fresh paint and beautiful stained-glass windows still in their place. She gazed at it as her phone rang again.
“Go ahead,” Russ said. He bent and kissed her lightly on the lips. “Answer the phone. It’s important.” And then he was gone.
It was all gone.
She groped for the phone as she opened her eyes. “Hello?” she said groggily. Her pillow was wet with her tears. She wiped at her eyes. “Hello?” she said again.
“Did I wake you?” Vicky asked.
Esther considered lying, but why bother? There was no shame in napping on a Sunday afternoon.
“It’s all right. I usually nap on Sundays too, but I’m too upset to nap today. I’m mad as a hornet. I’ve been on the phone all afternoon, and I can’t make heads or tails of this. I don’t know what we’re going to do!”
“I think we’re all going to have to find another church.” She knew she sounded sulky, but she didn’t care.
“So that’s it? You’re just going to give up?”
“We could start our own church.” The idea hadn’t occurred to her until she spoke it aloud, but now her whole body broke out in goosebumps, and an unexpected hope settled over her.
Vicky guffawed. “Our own church? A bunch of old broads? I don’t think so.”
Esther sank back into her couch. “I’m not sure it would be that hard—”
“Hard? They’re not going to let us use that building! They just told me they’re going to sell it!”
“We don’t need that building—”
“What? Are we going to meet in your apartment? Maybe three of us could fit in there! And you can’t meet here—you’ll freeze to death!”
Esther rolled her eyes. No one would freeze to death in the summer, but Vicky rattled around in an old farmhouse that was practically falling down around her. It took a lot of wood to keep it warm in the winters, and Vicky was a cheapskate.
“No, we’ll meet in a church. Let me make some calls.”
“Make some calls? Who are you going to call?”
“I’ll talk to you soon. Bye—”
“Wait!”
Esther paused.
Vicky let out a long breath. “Look, I don’t want to join another church, and isn’t starting our own church essentially the same thing?”
“Not at all,” Esther said quickly.
“Why not?”
“We will never agree on which church to join.” She’d known these women for decades. They couldn’t even agree on a curtain color. “We find a new church, we scatter. We start a new church, we stay together.”
