The Disciple

Chapter Fourteen

It's Sunday morning and I am with James attending a service at Holy Trinity. Music starts playing as the performers on the stage start singing. Everyone inside the congregation starts standing as James and I follow in pursuit. As I stand up, a girl walks to our row and stands next to me. I glance at her and she glances back. There was something familiar about this girl. It was as though I've seen her before. Everyone at the church starts singing in unison as I sing quietly being a shy person. As I'm singing, I feel someone's lips puckering against my cheek. I look around the congregation and it's the girl standing next to me. She smiles at me as my eyes begin widening up. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something oddly familiar about this girl. Her hair was brown with a mix lavender and her skin was cream as coffee.

"HERE I AM LORD!!!!!" I sing out loud as the congregation goes completely silent.

Everyone at Holy Trinity looks at me as though I belonged in a nursing home. James then glances at me as he tries to make this incident less awkward.

"Tristan are you okay? I mean the song is over." James ask me.

"Yeah, I'm okay. The Holy Spirit must be stronger with me than I thought. Especially with this girl next to me." I answer.

James glances at the seat next to me as no one is sitting there. He then, looks at me with puzzled look on his face. I try to figure out what is wrong as I look around for the girl that kissed me. I stare at the seat next to me and no one was sitting there. I look all over the church, but she is nowhere to be found. I turn to James with that same puzzled look.

"I swear she was here. I'm not making it up." I try to convince him.

"You must be dreaming too much." James says not buying into any of it.

The performers exit stage right and a podium is brought up on stage. Gabriel stands in front of the congregation and adjusts the mic.

"Good Morning everyone!" Gabriel exclaims in a joyous fashion.

"Good Morning." Everyone responds back.

"Today I would like to take this time and talk about praise. I'm pretty sure everyone in this very room has had some problem with life; Whether it was asking Jesus Christ for a girlfriend or getting extra income in your paycheck." Gabriel says.

The room becomes silent as everyone begin reflecting of their past problems. As for me, I regret not pursuing the girl that kissed me in the first grade. I still can't remember her name, but out of all the crushes that I have gone through, she was the only one who liked me in return. If I had a chance to turn back time, I would've told my younger self to go after her. Upon reflecting, I come back to reality as Gabriel gets the congregation our undivided attention. James looks at me, but this time he had worried a expression on his face.

"Tristan are you okay? You seem sad." He asks.

"Yeah, I'm okay." I answer.

The two of us return our attention back to the stage as Gabriel has a pen and paper in his hand. He suddenly signals the ushers to pass out pens and papers to everyone at Holy Trinity. Confused everyone waits for what Gabriel's instructions are.

"I would like all of you to write down your biggest regret and place it in the bin that is located at the end of your aisles. Afterwards, I'm going to read them and place them in my intentions box." Gabriel instructs.

Everyone then removes the cap of their pens and begins writing their biggest regrets. I already knew what I was going to put on mine. James finishes before me and I start wondering what he had written down. Knowing him, I know for a fact that he wasn't going to tell me. Ending my last sentence, I fold the paper up and place both James and my regrets into the bin as we were told. The ushers then collect the bins bringing them up to Gabriel. The ushers are then told to shake the bins, as Gabriel pulls out the first regret and unfolds the paper.