Chapter 7
The Sabbath-
The next morning started out early because they had church at 9:00am. Peggy had come to the shed and dumped me out of the cot at 7:30am. Tired, I followed her into the house. As soon as I went in, I could hear yelling. Standing there, I couldn’t believe how much fighting there was, even more than a school day. To escape the noise, I went into the kitchen to find food. Nothing was out. Since I had missed eating on Saturday, I was famished and no one seemed to be eating. With my stomach screaming at me, I went and found Peggy. She was alone in a bathroom doing her hair. No one was around, and I decided to use my voice.
“Can I have breakfast?”
“Oh no. Today is Fast Sunday.”
I must have looked puzzled, because what she said made no sense to me.
“Oh yeah, I forget, you’re not a member. Fast Sunday is the first Sunday of the month when we skip two meals and give the money we would have spent on meals to the poor. Also, fasting makes us grow closer to the Lord. We use this time to pray and meditate.” She turned away from me and continued to run a hot air curling iron through her thick, brown hair. I don’t know what she was trying to accomplish, because she seemed to be making it frizzier. As she got ready, I noticed her color band was brilliant blue.
My stomach churned. I hadn’t eaten anything Saturday. My last meal had been two slices of pizza and a bread stick on Friday night. I felt sick from starvation. I couldn’t imagine how being hungry made me draw closer to the Lord. I couldn’t fathom missing any more meals. I wasn’t part of their religion. Why couldn’t I just eat?
“You are making me nervous staring at me,” Peggy said as she turned to look at me. With her hand, she pulled a chunk of frizzed hair through her curling iron. “Go get your dress on.”
“I don’t have one.”
“Alashia?” Peggy screamed so loud, causing my ears to ache. Alashia didn’t show up after a few minutes, so Peggy called out even louder, “Alashia, I know you can hear me. COME HERE NOW!”
I covered my ears but they still hurt from Peggy’s yelling. Peggy went back to curling her hair. A few more minutes passed until Elizabeth came into the room.
“Elizabeth, where is Alashia?” Peggy asked.
“I don’t know. Can I have some breakfast?”
“No! It’s Fast Sunday. Go find Alashia for me.”
“But I am hungry.”
“Fast Sunday. Now go get Alashia!” Peggy barked.
Peggy finished her hair and Alashia still hadn’t shown up. “I guess we must find her ourselves,” Peggy grumbled as she pulled the plug out of the wall. The air was warm and I could smell the electrical heat coming off the curling iron.
Peggy pushed me aside as she left the bathroom. I followed her to Alashia’s room, where Alashia was still in bed.
“WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING IN BED?” Peggy screamed. “We leave to church in fifteen minutes!”
Alashia sat up as her eyes partially opened, seeming to be glued together. She rubbed them on her sleeve. She must have not been moving fast enough, for Peggy ripped her covers off and threw them on the floor.
“GET UP NOW AND FIND ALORA A DRESS! Then get ready yourself.” Peggy again pushed me out of the way as she stomped out of the room.
When her mom had left, Alashia went to her closet and looked in. There wasn’t much hanging in it. Surely, they never hung clothes in their house. Finding nothing, she went to her drawers and rummaged through them. Coming out empty, she shimmied under her bed, staying under there for several minutes, pushing things out on either side of her. Finally, she emerged with a green and black dress. After I had put it on, I thought it was a little too small on me, but no one else said or offered anything else. It looked awful on me, full of wrinkles and having a horrid smell about it. I didn’t like the way a dress felt, and I wondered if I had ever worn one before.
Church was long and dragged on for what felt like forever. There were three meetings and they all lasted an hour each. I was very uncomfortable because they talked about all sorts of terms and words which had no meaning for me. I didn’t understand their jargon.
On the way home, the oldest brother Cordon was complaining about how long church was. I silently cheered him on.
“It really is a pleasure to be able to go for three hours,” Peggy responded to Cordon.
“Well, I still don’t like it,” Cordon grumbled.
“Don’t say that. One day you will. One day you will cherish it,” she said as her eyes got moist.
“I doubt that,” Cordon replied.
I had to agree.
…
After church we didn’t eat either. We had to wait until dinner. I had actually gotten pretty weak and famished with the lack of food. A massive headache felt like it was ripping my skull apart. I went up to my bed and slept until dinner came.
Dinner was magnificent like always with its beef roast, potatoes, mushrooms, squash, two Jell-O salads, and three pies; apple, cherry, and peach.
“Did you know we grew all the fruit in the pies?” Peggy said to me as she took a massive bite of cherry pie. The whip cream slid off and landed in her lap.
“Oh heck,” she said as she wiped at it with her napkin. Once her lap was clean, she turned back to me. “Of course, we aren’t in season for them yet. This is all fruit I jarred and processed on my own. I believe in being self-sufficient.”
She acted like she was trying to impress me, but I wasn’t. I didn’t really understand her, nor did I care if she was ‘self-sufficient’ or not. What I cared about was getting another piece of pie. Thankfully, she had sliced the pies up into little slivers and shared them evenly; otherwise I know I wouldn’t have gotten one. I wished she would do that with all the food.
…
During the night, Peggy took Taz and me back on the reservoir.
“How did you like church?” she asked. My stomach dropped. I really didn’t want to talk about it.
“It was long,” I honestly replied.
“Did you do what I asked you to do?” I wasn’t sure what she was talking about.
“Did you pray with your fast?”
I didn’t want to disappoint her, but I really wasn’t interested in talking about religion. I had already had three hours of it. “Do you mind if we don’t talk about this?” I asked shyly.
Her eyes got big. “Oh, of course not. Personal revelation is between you and the Lord.”
All those funny words she used. I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I am glad she left the subject alone.
Although we could enjoy being out on the boat, ‘for bonding purposes’, Peggy wouldn’t let us fish, because it was Sunday.
“God made the world in six days, then on the seventh day he rested. It is an actual commandment that we don’t work or play on Sundays. This is a day to remember and observe the Lord.”