I pulled over a few blocks away from the renovated night club and rested my head on the steering wheel, trying to pull myself together for what I was about to do. Lord, let this be the right thing, I prayed quietly. I sat up straight and pulled the visor down to check my make up. I rarely ever wore make up, but I needed to look dramatic today, I needed to look extremely well put together.
I applied another coat of dark red lipstick before I straightened up and pulled into the building's parking lot. Slowly getting out of my car I sighed, straightening my black skater-skirt, and listening to the singing of the small congregation.
I softly sung along as they sang the same songs they had been, as if nothing had changed since I left. I suppose nothing had, I wasn't a big deal. It's not like I was the lead singer of the worship team. Just someone passing through. Nothing more. Nothing less. I held the tears in as my mind went to the past few months I had spent getting to know the people in this small church. I had begun to feel as if this was going to be the one. I felt like this was going to be the one I strived to become a part of, to be someone they needed. The church I fit into, the one I would feel compelled to go to every Sunday. One that I would be welcomed in, and not left out of..
While I had been caught up in my thoughts the music had stopped, meaning I had just a few minutes before he started to speak. I went back over the plan in my head as I leaned against the side of my car. I needed to get in and get out, and I needed to leave an impact. Years ago my Father told me to keep my head up, and that's just what I'd done since that day. My red pumps clicked on the pavement as I stared straight ahead of me, I had never looked defeated, and I wasn't going to now. No matter how many times I needed to cry about something, if I fell down seven times, I was taught to stand up eight. I stared at my reflection in the glass door as I approached it. Dark brown curls framed my face and fell down around the large cross that was printed in the middle of my white shirt. My face was the edged into the definition of determination. I pursed my lips and opened the door quietly, anxiety gripped my heart with the promise of an attack but I pushed it down. This needed to be done, this was the right thing to do. I stood unnoticed in the back of the room while the church scurried back to their seats, eagerly awaiting Charles' sermon for the day. I waited as he prepared himself. His starting sentence being exactly what I'd hoped for.
"May I start off with how great those ribs were at the meeting last night!"
As he received agreeing murmurs from the crowd, I walked straight up the isle, ignoring the gasps from my fiancees parents as I pulled the mic right out of the preachers hand and turned to him.
"I agree Charles they were astounding!" I exclaimed, to him and the congregation. "But I have to say they were lacking something." I started as I began to pace the stage, tapping my bottom lip as in thought.
The people gave me mixed reactions, whispering to one another, some louder than others. Confusion filled the air as I continued on with what I'd been preparing for, for months.
As I looked around the church, and listened to the mummers of the congregation, I noticed Charles had slipped off the stage and was standing amongst his followers. Biting his nails, he knew his day had come. You can't be what he was, or do what he had done and not have expected anyone to find out.
"Excruciatingly similar to the church you're running! They're missing something, don't you think? Does anyone know what it is?" I continued as I looked upon the church questioningly, they glared back.
Charles understood he would soon be bombarded with questions he wouldn't want to answer, and I saw him begin to back out of the room silently. The souls around him too focused on me to notice his escape in progress. But it did not go unnoticed by me. Just to give truth to what I was about to expose to the congregation, when they turned to look unto him for guidance, so he could prove me wrong, he would be slipping out the back door. Sadly, he had made his bed. And now, it was time for him to lay in it.
"No? No guesses? Then why don't I just tell you!" I cleared my throat before I began to speak again, effectively grabbing the attention of the men in the sound booth trying to figure out how to cut off my mic. "The truth!" I finished, as if I was astonished they didn't know what I was talking about. "About your beloved pastor," I turned and pointed to the black silhouette trying to slip out the door, "That man, is a liar."
