Preachers Daughter, Charlie Mayhew.

⁰¹ Thoroughfare

♱

The heat that came through the dusty windows of the church beat down on the lace covered shoulders of Adelaide Chambers. Sunday's were the hottest out of the week, which Addies' father said was because of the Lord and how it was him pushing them to church. And as much as she wanted to agree with that, because of how much she loved God. She thought it was a load of bullcrap. Somedays she saw it as punishment for the sins she's committed.

Adelaide stood behind the pews. Standing near the doors, waving goodbye to familiar faces as they walk through to exit the church. She stood in her knee length white dress with the smallest lace details. Her hair softly curled in place. To anyone else, she looked like the sweetest southern girl you would ever see. And even Addie thought that.

She smiled brightly in the faces of people she knew. Hugging the ladies who she bakes cookies for, and shaking the hands of the men who came around for Wednesday feasts with her father. Addie glanced at the grandfather clock on the stage. 1:47 PM, it read. "Church let out earlier than usual", she thought to herself. "I wonder why Father John wrapped it up so fast. Maybe he forgot to memorize his verses again...Or did he run out of them?-"

"Adelaide!" Margret Cook exclaimed, breaking Addie out of her rambling brain. She jumped as her fingers landed softly on her cross necklace. "I have been calling your name for a minute straight, my dear!"

"Oh, hello Mrs Cook!" Addie said softly, her slight southern accent slipping out. "I'm very sorry I was lost in my own thoughts." She chuckled nervously.

Margret Cook was the mayors wife and one of the most renowned lady of the church. She wore a light yellow dress that fell to her calfs (very big on modesty.) and white heels with thick straps and a small heel. Addie has often gone over to Miss Cook's to borrow dresses and curl each others hair. As their mothers were friends before she passed.

"That's quite alright, Addie." Margret said, placing her hand on Adelaide's shoulder and patting it a few times. "I was just wondering the next time you were going to visit your father? Maybe I could come along."

Addie thought back to the calendar she kept hanging next to her bed, and the pink hearts she draws on every other Wednesday. Those days were the ones when she brought cookies to her father in the hospital. He was diagnosed with lung cancer a year ago. "All apart of God's plan, Addie." He had said to her when they got the news.

"This Wednesday, actually. Of course you can come if you would like, I would be so happy to have you!" She said brightly, batting her eyelashes and smiling. Margret's husband was her father's best friend all the way since they were kids. So naturally, his wife visited his dying best friend..

"Well that's wonderful. I'll see you this week, darling!" She said, before turning to speak with the older ladies of the congregation. Addie smiled as she departed, turning to leave herself.

She looked down at her dainty Mary Jane's as she walked to the bus stop, just down the road from the church. Her dad said she wasn't allowed to drive until she was 40. And of course she listened to him. Addie always listened to her father, since she was young. So every Sunday; and on the Wednesday's she wasn't visiting her father, she rode the bus home. Addie sat down on the wooden bench that was covered by the rotting vinyl above it.

The road she was on held nothing but the church, the bus stop, and road signs. Her town was small, it didn't have much. But it had the fear of the Lord in it, and to Addie— that was all it needed to be home.