Glory Be

Chapter Seventeen

"Let go!" Isaiah tugged his arm away, but David didn't give. He pulled Isaiah's resisting body out the back door. Slamming the door behind them, then dropping Isaiah's arm.

"You're really committed to messing up my life, aren't you?" David scowled as he angled himself in front of the door. Becoming a barrier between Isaiah and possible escape.

"What are you on about?" Isaiah took a step back onto the grass.

"Your inability to do your own work!" David panted, "You even dragged Adelaide into your scheme!"

"My scheme?" Isaiah's eyebrows lifted up, "Father expects a lot from me, and I'm just trying my best to balance everything, David."

"Ha," David scoffed, "He expects a lot from you?"

"... Yeah," Isaiah's voice quieted.

"Really? Is that what you think? You think this is a lot?" David's voice rose furiously, "This is not a lot, Isaiah. You've never even known of hard work before this."

"You really dragged me out here to yell at me about this?" Isaiah's eyes darted around. A crushing anxiety closed in around his lungs, making it hard to breathe.

"Can't you understand what you're doing? You're making me look bad in front of Father," David reiterated.

"I'm not trying to do anything like that," Isaiah defended.

"Of course, you're not trying to," David almost laughed, "You've always been too scatterbrained for something like scheming. What was I thinking?"

"You know I can't control that!" Isaiah snapped, "That's why Father even gave me this opportunity, so I could apply myself! What's the difference to you?"

"Because why should you get the opportunity, when you've done nothing but slack off your entire life?" David said, "It doesn't make sense to me, why you get second chance after second chance."

"I, I don't know," Isaiah stumbled, "Father must, he must believe in me."

"Does he?" David added, and Isaiah felt his throat tighten.

"At least you get to inherit the Church," Isaiah said, a nervous anger creeping up through his body, "I don't have anything like that."

"Of course, you don't, you couldn't run this Church even if you tried," David scowled.

"Well, I don't want too anyways!" Isaiah admitted, "I have the apprenticeship. I like the printshop a lot, and I don't need you to hold this over my head anymore!"

"What?" David looked surprised, before his eyebrows narrowed "I knew it, you never cared about this place all that much."

"That's not what I'm saying," Isaiah exclaimed.

"But you're reading secular literature, and missing out on your chores," David counted off, "You're barely present during the dinners or service."

"Father told you about that?" Isaiah gave a betrayed look, "Listen, my apprenticeship has been taking up a lot of my time, and I want to focus my attention there. It's a good place for me."

"And how is this new apprenticeship going to be any different?" He hissed, "When they don't give a second chance and fire you. You'll be right be here."

"That won't happen." Isaiah defended.

"How are you so confident? You can't control being a scatterbrained kid, God made you that way," David mocked that common phrase his Father loved.

"Because it's more than just an apprenticeship!" Isaiah panted, "Mr. Kowal is kind and understanding, and me and Sydney, we're friends!"

"Are you sure?" David almost smiled.