Friends A to Z

Sprinting Forward

Althea rolls in her bed. She is bored. William had already left for work leaving her with nothing to do. She looks at the time, it was still early and considers going to church for once. It has been years since she had last gone to church, and she often reminisces about the time she spent. She misses the pastor, the services, but  most of all she misses music. The harmony of the choir that echoes through the soul and resonates with something deeper. The feeling is hard to explain, but she was sure that many in the church could understand what she meant. Gospel has been her biggest inspiration and motivation through all of her life. It always had a way of lifting her up whenever she was down, and while listening to Gospel on the radio was awe inspiring, there was nothing like sitting in the pews and hearing the choir in person and allowing their voices to flow over her. 

However, if there is one thing that keeps her from returning, it is the constant judgement and arrogance of the many church goers. She knows if she pops back into church that she would receive haughty and disapproving stares from the elder church members. Those looks were the reason she stays in bed every Sunday morning, the reason she never left her small apartment out of fear of bumping into someone who would recognize her at the supermarket ans ask her the dreaded question. 'Did you go to church today? I didn't see you at the sermon,' with full knowledge that she did not attend. It was like their way of pointing out who the better Christian is. 

She sighs and looks up at her desk. She thinks about trying to write again, but that brought mind to other topics that she would rather not think about currently. She looks at her phone laying idly on the floor, considering going into work early, but she feels too lazy for that. She struggles to reach the rectangular box. She grabs her phone off the floor and unlocks it then rolls onto her back. She enters in a chatroom to see if anyone had messaged her, only to find no one was on, which was odd seeing as. A deep frown plasters itself on her face.

Althea lets out a mumbled groan. She drags herself off the bed and goes through her closet to find something to wear. She decides she to just go to church. It was a better idea then sitting and not doing anything. She pulls out a black pencil skirt and a white button down silk shirt. She tosses them on as quickly as possible, then searches for her a pair of flats to go with the outfit. 

Once she is done, she grabs a cardigan and speed walks out of her apartment forgetting to lock the door. She goes to her car, a little red mazda stick as she called it. Stretching her legs into the driver's seat, she starts the engine. She backs out of the parking lot then drives off heading towards First Baptist on Cunningham. She does not have to drive to far, only taking her around 15 minutes to get there. It was a fairly small church compared to the other churches surrounding it that seemed to be everywhere. It was like a rule in the South that there had to be five churches every square mile, not that it made much of a difference to Althea. She stays with the church she grew up in, the same church her parents always took her to until the day they had split. Then it was just her and her mom every Sunday morning, that is until she went off to college. That's when her consistency to showing up to service began slipping, along with the relationship that she had with her mother.

Althea parks on the curb, seeing as there were no more parking spaces in the lot of the church. She turns off the engine and hears the roar of the people. Even from outside, the people could praise the roof off of the building. She can tell that service just started and she stares at the building, now having second thoughts. She sees a couple of late goers, a woman wearing a vibrant green, sporting a short bob cut dragging her unwilling child inside the church. Althea chuckles at the sight as the scene brings back memories of when her mom would force her into dresses and pull her kicking and screaming to the car. She continues to watch until the two disappear behind double doors. 

Unable to drag herself out of the car, she bangs her head against the steering wheel. She tries to offer herself a few words of encouragement, but ends up putting herself down instead. She starts up her car again and drives off. "Maybe next time," She whispers to herself and returns back to her apartment to spend another Sunday doing nothing.