(Lights up on Aileen.)
AILEEN: Yeah, so that Janna girl. Janna whats-her-name? She moved here and started being dragged to church by her grandma the first sunday they were in town, the very first Sunday. Where's that chalkboard? (Lights up on chalkboard.) This was maybe June. Two months after Elise's Easter Picnic, two months before Pastor Mike's impromptu meltdown potluck.
The first time any of us were around her, we could tell there was somethin' really off about her. I remember Pastor Steve was talking to our youth group, specifically us seniors about how we had to make a choice when we left school and left our parents...make choices about how we wanted to spend our lives. The Dash, he kept calling it. The little mark on your tombstone between your birthday and the day you die- that was every choice you make and every little thing that happens to you. There we were that first sunday she showed up—sitting in the back ripping the edges of the pages in the Bible. Nobody was paying her much attention except us but every couple of seconds, she would look up and giggle at something Pastor Steve had said. I hated her from the first second, but then at the very tail end of the sermon she outdid herself. She did something irredeemable in my eyes and she should have been asked not to come back.
(Lights up on Pastor Steve and Janna.)
STEVE: I'm going to ask us to bow our heads as the band comes back up. (Isaac enters with a guitar and begins quietly plucking 'Grace Greater Than Our Sin') I'm going to pray over us, but I want you all to think about what we discussed today. Think about throwing away your shame, your embarrassment, your what-have-you, whatever hindrances you might have about sharing the gospel...throw that away. Because nothing is more important than sharing the love of Christ with-
JANNA: What if the person you're talking to is Muslim?
STEVE: (Caught off guard, looking out into the group) I'm sorry? Who said that?
JANNA: I did.
STEVE: I do not believe we have met, but I would be happy to discuss this with you in my office after the service.
JANNA: I just want to know what I should do if the person is Muslim. Or Buddhist. Or Taoist, or Jewish, or Mormon, or Hindu, or a freaking Beatles fan. What if people already have their religion?
STEVE: What's your name?
JANNA: Janna.
STEVE: (Motioning to Isaac to stop playing) Janna, that is a very good question. To that, I would say this. Not everybody is as blessed as we are to grow up knowing Christ. Not everybody is given the gift of the gospel from the outset. They are just told what religion to follow by their parents, and they just have to have blind faith. That is why it is so important for us to witness. Sometimes we are the only Jesus that somebody will see that day. They have no way of knowing him without us.
JANNA: (She begins walking towards him) That's a lot of responsibility for God to put on us. So if somebody never hears the name Jesus, they go to hell and it's my fault? And didn't most of us also grow up believing the religion our guardians told us to believe? (She tugs on his tie)
STEVE: What are you doing?
JANNA: Oh I'm sorry, don't mind me it's just against my religion for your tie to be crooked.
STEVE: My tie should not be your concern right now. I am trying to preach and your attempts at a metaphor are not really landing at this moment. You should not be worried over something as trivial as whether somebody's tie is straight or not. You invade people's space when you try to correct that for people. It is not the same as talking to them about Jesus. Jesus is eternal, neckties are not. (Beat) I don't mind a crooked tie.
JANNA: You should.
(Aileen stands up.)
AILEEN: I can't take this anymore. I don't know who you are or what you're doing at this church but you should go right on ahead and quit talking to the pastor that kind of way right now.
JANNA: I'm just trying to ask for clarification on the information that your pastor is giving me right now. I just take issue with the whole "control" thing.
STEVE: It's not about control.
AILEEN: You hear that? It's not about control. Now why don't take your skeptical northern accent back where you came from and let us have our youth group in peace.
STEVE: (Getting flustered) Ladies everything is quite alright. Let me try to explain this better...
(Lights down on them, back up on Aileen.)
AILEEN: He never could. Not because there wasn't a perfectly good explanation, but because he was so caught off guard and not prepared to answer stupid questions. She just kept going back and forth with him like that. It was real obnoxious because it wasn't like she doesn't believe that stuff—great commission and making The Dash count and all that—she does. She just wanted to argue for disagreement's sake.What made it worse was how Isaac looked at her the whole time with this tiny grin of admiration like he was impressed that she had stood up and embarrassed Pastor Steve like that. Like he had forgotten who his father was. Like he had forgotten who his girlfriend is. I didn't like the look. Not one bit. And I sure as shit do not care for Janna What's-Her-Name.
(The spotlight goes down on Aileen.)
