Page 20 of September Lessons
The assistant manager popped out of his office in time to hear that. It definitely got an eyebrow raise out of her. Carrie sheepishly apologized for her outburst and thanked her stars that there weren’t any customers in the pizza parlor when she said that.
Leigh-Ann slipped out of her chair and opened the door. “I’ll see you around, Carrie,” she said, face still turned away, “text me if something comes up, huh?”
Carrie had no idea what that meant. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
Chapter 10
LEIGH-ANN
Leigh-Ann didn’t often volunteer at Waterlily House the same days she went to church, since Sunny insisted that she “have a proper teenaged life,” whatever that meant. Did they think that because she wasn’t paid to help out, she didn’t want to do it? Sure beat lazing around the house, bored out of her mind. Even if Leigh-Ann wasn’t scheduled to work, she sometimes rode her bike out to the house for the sole purpose of getting some exercise.
Too bad Carrie had been too busy to hang out with her. When Leigh-Ann texted her the night before to see what she was doing Sunday afternoon, she got a reply comprised of nothing but pizza emojis.
What was the point of them being friends if they couldn’t hang out after school? Was it really too much for Leigh-Ann to ask for someone to see on a personal basis again?
Times like these made her miss the “good ol’ days,” back when she had supposed friends to hang out with and talk to on the phone. These days, almost everyone texted. But there had been that blissful time in middle school when she, Christina, Amanda, and maybe a couple others were all on the line together. That almost never happened now.
Thinking about Carrie made her miss a lot of things. Things Leigh-Ann wasn’t sure she really wanted to think about as she sat through a sermon about sinning in the eyes of the Lord. Her father fell into a respectful doze while her mother slyly texted a friend. The only people paying attention to church were those in the first three rows of pews.
Sinning, huh?Leigh-Ann never put much stock in this whole religion thing, but sometimes the talk about sinning and repenting made her think about her life so far – and the lives of those she knew.Whoever is responsible for the barn fires is definitely going to hell if they don’t repent. They killed a cow.There weren’t enough jokes about steaks and jerky in the world to make up for the loss of the Gladsbury’s milk cow. The church had a donation jar at the entrance to go toward the purchase of a new cow, but most folks around there knew how much like family those animals were to the folks depending upon them for daily life.“We will always miss Holly the happy cow,”the message on the print-out said,“but we shall move forward with a new soul, the Grace of God looking over us.”
“That poor cow,” Leigh-Ann’s mother had said when they first entered the church. “It’s not right for bad eggs to make light of God’s creations.”
You know who else is going to hell?Leigh-Ann’s eyes darted between the hymn book and the Bible slotted in the seat before hers.Me. Probably.
She didn’t know why she was going to hell. Nor did she know why she cared, since she was agnostic at best, probably an atheist at “worst,” but that was the thing about growing up in a place like that.You hear enough about hell, you start to see it in your nightmares.
Like many of the other churches in the area, the Hardys’ stayed either mum about the LGBT congregation or openly welcomed them. There were a few familiar faces there in the Methodist church. Faces that were unrepentantly gay in how they brought their small families and asked to get married by the pastor. But Leigh-Ann always wondered how genuine the acceptance was. Two towns over, a church of unnamed denomination put up signs declaring the houses of worship in Paradise Valley verboten and their congregations damned for all eternity. Nobody took any stock in it beyond taking a few pictures and sharing them around for a giggle, but occasionally, Leigh-Ann rolled over in her bed at night and wondered if they were right. Not because she agreed with them, but because she was still at the uncertain age when she wondered a lot of upsetting things.
“Where you heading, honey?” Mrs. Hardy asked after service was over and the three of them shuffled toward the car. “You look like you’ve got places to go.”
“Think I’ll round by the B&B and see if they’ve got anything for me to do.”
“Are you supposed to work today?”
“No, but it beats aimlessly riding my bike around town.”
Mrs. Hardy unlocked the family car. “It’s such a shame you don’t have those friends anymore. Whatever happened between you and Christina? Seems like yesterday you guys were playing by the creek behind the park. Now I hardly see her around anymore.”
“Christina and I haven’t been friends in forever. Not since I was a sophomore.”
“Riiiight.” They waited for Mr. Hardy to return from the donation jar before getting into the car. “Two years. Practically an eternity.”
Leigh-Ann didn’t see what this had to do with anything.
She grabbed her bike as soon as they were home. The ride to Waterlily House wasn’t as pleasant as she anticipated, since her heart beat with ferocity and the moisture left her throat. Was that what hellfire did to a girl’s body? Suck all the water from her frame until she couldn’t breathe anymore?
She still hadn’t figured out what was wrong with her when she arrived at Waterlily House. Although she expected to see Sunny milling about the place, she instead got an eyeful of one of the last people she wanted to see.
“Hello, Leigh-Ann.” Ms. Tichenor looked up from the afghan she patched on the porch. Her nimble fingers were accompanied with squared reading glasses that must have helped her stitch with ease. Leigh-Ann still had twenty-twenty vision, according to the eye doctor, so she couldn’t relate to that. “Were you supposed to come by? Sunny didn’t say anything about it.”
“Could say the same to you.” Leigh-Ann cleared her throat. “Ms. Tichenor.”
“Hm. I had a bit of cabin fever after grading papers all this morning.” She winked at Leigh-Ann. “Why do I get the feeling you’ve already read1984before?”
“Because I have. Is there something wrong with it?”
“Oh, no, happened to notice that you have a grand grasp of the material’s themes, but seem to have missed some of the details. Which is explained if you haven’t read it in a while.”
