inspired by Footloose
My father's authority rained over the crowd of grey and beige with his spit and I wasn't talking about the guy upstairs.
"Every, every day, our Lord is testing us!"
You could hear my restless gaze in this quiet little church in our conservative little hometown.
"If he wasn't testing us, how would you account for the sorry state of our society..."
This was Sunday for the teenagers thrown in her to wipe them of sin by their parents but for me and my sister, this was life.
"For the crimes that plague the big cities of this country..."
A life where you wouldn't even dare dance in case your own blood would burn you at the stake.
"When he could sweep this pestilence from the face of the earth with one mighty gesture of his hand?"
It wasn't a question, religion was never up for discussion in Bomont.
"If our Lord wasn't testing us, how would you account for the proliferation these days of this obscene rock and roll music..."
My sister and I share a guilty look as we had more than one life in this tiny town and only one of them we could project to our father.
Not only was the arrow pointing to us obvious but there was another head at the other side of the room that hung low at the mention of something as normal and harmless as music. There must be a new boy in town as his reactions were not yet trained to hide away from the sea of judging eyes all doing God's work.
He was exciting, the same disinterest in the twinkle of his eye and fluffy hair and a striped suit that screamed big city. It was the place I wanted to go so I wanted to find out more about this guy. His eyes crawled the room at the mention of sexuality and he rubbed his tired eyes into his hand.
He must've had a long journey.
"If our Lord wasn't testing us, why, he could take all these pornographic books and albums and turn them into one big fiery cinder like that!"
I snickered a little at the mention of things such as these from my father, the hesitation on his lips was comedic and the way he said these words were like as if he tried speaking german for the very first time. It just sounded weird, wrong.
My little snicker made the spark on the other side of the fence turn towards me and hold a little grin everywhere but his lips that remained stoic. Seems he had this town figured out a little better than I thought...
He held my gaze there, challenging me to ignore these words of wisdom and turn to sin until a hand came smashing down from wood that made us jump higher than a terrified cat. I thought it was the big G until I saw the shame and passion in front of me continuing his weekly speech.
It was God's day after all.
That didn't stop him from turning his head once more, I grin with a lifted eyebrow as to portray my intrigue but I never turned to face him again. I let him study me as I pretended to care at the same old words that got shouted my way whenever I gave in to 'sinful actions'.
There was a teeny tiny gasp near me as Rusty spotted the gaze of the new guy lasering this way and nudged Ariel with a girly whisper. She turns to him with the same arrogant intrigue, her bouncy curls flicking in my face in slow motion and her baby blues sizing him up. Her lips, painted only slightly curled up only slightly.
Rusty's long ponytail continued to wiggle about like a real horse's tail as they chuckled together at the cute boy looking their way, not in a million years thinking that he could be possibly looking at me, the one who never really existed in this town hidden by the wingspan of queen Ariel.
"I welcome his test!"
Ariel was beautiful, attractive, intelligent and charming with enough power to mould herself into whatever shape she wanted based on who she was talking to. Me, however, I didn't really talk to anyone and had only a handful of friends that wouldn't nudge my side when a guy looked at me because it never happened.
It never happens.
"I welcome this challenge from my Lord..."
She could poke and poke and poke but it was only a matter of time that he burst. He would eventually fall for her and I would just be a name in registration. Anyway, it was nice to know that I was first for a change.
I don't know if God gave me this challenge but the day that Rusty got it all wrong was the day that the world went all wrong like watching a dog walk on its hind legs.
