We arrived at church a few minutes before eleven o'clock. I followed Grace and her mom to the fourth row from the front. Isaac went toward the front row. I noticed how he was walking. One leg had a much longer stride than the other, almost with a limp, but he seemed okay.
A few people went to the front of the church, then everyone got a red book from out of the back of the seats in front of them. Grace let me look at hers. I could read the first line that they started singing from, but after that, I was lost. Grace seemed to know what they were singing, but it was not the same words I was looking at.
They finished a few songs and a man in a suit stood in front of the church greeting us and talked a little about the church. Sarah gave me a piece of gum to chew during the service. Isaac got up from the front row holding his bible. He shook the man's hand, and lie his bible on a wooden table-looking thing at the front of the church. Everyone stood as he read from his bible, then without warning everyone sat down. I was the last to sit. I could feel people behind me staring. It was just one of those things where I felt I could sense people looking at me.
Isaac began to raise his voice as he talked. Every word got louder and louder.
A few men on the front row started yelling, "Amen!"
As Isaac continued to yell, I became more and more uncomfortable. I started gripping the seat in front of me. I thought maybe if I held on to something, I would be okay, so I reached for Grace's hand.
She slapped my hand down and whispered, "not now." That's when I felt so uncomfortable that I wanted to just get up and leave, but I couldn't make myself do that. I noticed that my arms were wet, so I used the underarm part of my shirt to wipe the sweat. I glanced down at my hands for a moment and remembered the cut on my arm. I was wishing I had brought my knife.
I still had my head tilted downward when I heard a loud boom. I looked up at Isaac, who was still yelling. He smacked the table-looking thing again and walked around in front of it. He was stomping and raising his hands in the air while he was yelling. A woman sitting behind me screamed. I turned around to look at her. She was standing up, still screaming, and started clapping her hands. She stomped her feet a few times and ran up to the front of the church. Isaac had stopped yelling by the time she got up there.
The woman was still screaming and jumping around. She shook Isaac's hand, still jumping, and gave him a hug. She yelled, "hallelujah!" And jumped some more, still shouting the word.
My heart was beating so fast, it was getting ready to explode. I started fidgeting with my hands. I was chewing my gum so fast that it was already losing flavor.
Isaac was saying, "come to the alter and everything will be alright."
I was thinking that the alter he speaks of must be magical if it can make everything alright. I didn't want to go up there in front of all of the people though.
A little boy from the back ran and kneeled down to it, then a bunch of men gathered around him and started talking really loud. I looked around to see everyone looking down at their laps. I tried to figure out what everyone was looking at, but I was unsuccessful.
After everyone was done looking at their laps, the mood lightened. No one was yelling anymore, and a woman went to play some cheerful music on the piano. Everyone began to shake each other's hands. A lot of people came by to shake mine. There was a wide variety of handshakes, some cold, some hot, some firm, and some loose. When everyone was done shaking hands, the man in the suit looked down at the ground and said a few words. Everyone else was looking down also.
He said, "amen," then everyone started walking out of the door. I sure was glad that it was over.
I followed Grace back to the car. She asked me what I though, and I said that I didn't know. She started telling me everyone's name as they walked by. She continued to do this as we waited for Isaac to come. I really didn't care who everyone was, but listening to her was a lot better than listening to Isaac yell, so I didn't complain.
