Day 4: Write a scene in a church.
- - -
It was Saturday and that meant no work for Sophia Johnson. Well, atleast not at the office.
She hopped out of bed as her alarm sounded and bounded to the kitchen. She brewed some coffee and fried some eggs, before making her lunch and stuffing it in her backpack. After breakfast and a shower, she put on her usual weekend ensemble--a shirt, sneakers and denim overalls. You wouldn't expect a lawyer to be wearing this on her free days, but what else was she supposed to wear at her other job? Her usual pencil skirt and heels certainly wouldn't be useful. She tied her hair into a loose bun and strapped her backpack on. Before long, she was out of the door and on her way to the church.
Unbeknownst to a lot of people, Sophia actually grew up at CCC or Christ Catholic Church. Her parents died when she was 4, so her uncle Damon--who also happened to be Father Damon--took her in and raised her as his own. Ever since she could remember, she'd been spending her weekends cleaning the church with the nuns and a few active members of the community. Most of the kids her age who had helped out back then had already moved out of town, but she just couldn't imagine leaving that place to rot. She knew the people who loved the church were getting older, like her uncle, and they couldn't take care of it as well as before. So really, her second job was more like volunteer-work than anything else, since she most definitely was not getting paid for it.
Sophia began almost immediately after entering the spaceous area. She knelt down and sent a little thank-you prayer to God before locating her instruments at the usual closet and dragging them out to the main hall. A few minutes after she started sweeping the floors, the rest of the volunteers filed in and helped. There were about five senior citizens who'd known her since she was a kid, and four teenagers--only two were there willingly, the other two were sent there as punishment by the school. But, from what she could see, they were doing alright. They weren't just lazing around and pretending to do work, they were actually helping and having fun.
That was what working at the church meant to Sophia. It wasn't just something she felt obligated to do, it had been her home for the longest time. The church held a thousand and one memories for her; laughter, fun, love, heartache, friendship and family, most of all. When she lost her family, she earned an even bigger one, and she knew God had sent them all to fill the gap her parents had left.
In the middle of the morning, they all took a break. Her uncle stepped out of the convent and invited them inside for some snacks and juice, the way he always did every Saturday. Before Sophia could head in with the rest of them though, something caught her eye.
A woman had entered through the widely opened doors of the church, a shawl placed over her head like a hood and her arms already clasped in prayer as she shuffled wearily to one of the pews. Even from afar, Sophia could tell she was crying.
"Uhm, you can go on ahead, uncle," she told him with a light touch of his elbow. "I'll follow soon."
Her uncle merely smiled and nodded in uderstanding. He, of all people, knew she couldn't resist the cries of the problematic.
As she walked closer to the woman she hoped she wouldn't get scared away. In more than one instance a church-goer had run off when she'd tried to help, but it seemed that the woman didn't even notice her approaching. She was just kneeling down and had her hands clasped together in front of her face as she sobbed. It wasn't an ordinary cry either. You could tell some part of her was trying to keep it in but the sound of her whimpers still filled the empty hall. At one point, she raised her face to the sky, and Sophia realized she was familiar.
"Courtney?" she said.
The woman was startled at her interruption. Her eyes flew open and she jumped back. With her face now in clear view, Sophia confirmed that it was indeed her old friend.
