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THE NEXT MORNING, JULIETTE was sitting in an old-fashioned wooden pew with her mother, Monica, and younger sister, Emerald near the front of the church.
Her father, Andrew was on the red-carpeted platform just ahead, dressed in a navy blue suit and matching hard-bottomed shoes, performing a sermon about redemption.
Harvest Baptist Church was located on the edge of the west side of Charlotte and Andrew Brooks had been the lead pastor for as long as Juliette could remember, almost seventeen and a half years.
Juliette poorly contained a yawn as she looked around her father's congregation, noting the colorful and elaborate hats that the older black women were wearing that matched either their dress or their husbands' ties.
The fashion choices were a better show than watching her father preach on and on.
Don't get her wrong, Juliette believed in something. She just wasn't sure that something was the Christian God and it made a church for her a little irksome and hypocritical.
Juliette zipped up the crimson Delta Sigma Theta line jacket she had received from crossing a few months ago and then glanced down at her sister and lightly tapped her elbow.
When Emerald looked at Juliette, inadvertently showing off her hearing aid, Juliette began to sign the words in American Sign Language, 'Are you bored too?'
Emerald nodded and then signed, 'Dad's rambling again. I'm tired.'
Then Emerald laid her head on Juliette's shoulder and she gently placed her hand on the side of her sister's face.
Juliette turned to her mother to mutter, "You need to stop bringing Emmy. You know this tires her out."
Monica waved Juliette's words off, her eyes focused on her husband.
Juliette let out a soft sigh of irritation as Emerald adjusted her skull on Juliette's shoulder.
Finally, behind her father, the choir rose to sing the exit song sung at the end of each service.
The congregation behind them sprung up and off of the pews to walk around and talk amongst themselves while Andrew approached the family.
His eyes fell on Juliette's red line jacket, and a look of disdain fell upon his face. Andrew glanced around at the congregation and then back at his oldest daughter.
