Sunshine Valley

Revival 

     Sara 2 showed up at the door in tears. Dillon answered the door with a towel in his hand moppin’ his wet hair. She choked through her tears, “is Evelyn home?” Visibly shaking, he let her in. 

     “Come on in. Have a seat,” he pointed at the living room. 

     Evie had wet hair as well. She sat on the couch beside Sara. Rattling could be heard. Maybe from the kitchen? “What’s wrong, my dear?”

     Sara started sobbing uncontrollably. Evie just let her cry. Finally she blurted out, “THEY THREW STUFF AT ME.”

     The gentle clink of the metal tray touching the coffee table tore through the aftermath. Enough to startle Evie. “Thank you.”

     Dillon looked at Sara with great confusion, “who threw stuff at you?”

     “Last night,” she huffed. “Everybody was so supportive of me. Tonight,” the sobbing started again, “they threw things at me.” She tried to regain control of herself. “I was on such a high from what I thought was a successful first night; tonight was devastating.” Evie looked up to see that Dillon had left the room. “What am I gonna do?”

     “Which nights are you preaching?”

     “I’m done.” She sniffed. Dillon reappeared with a box of tissues. “No one had signed up for Monday or Tuesday. Thought I was doing something good by taking them.” She wailed. Dillon left again. “This was supposed to be my calling. Doesn’t God want me to do this?”

     “Walk me through how you imagine this. Your idea dream.” Evie spoke softly.

     “God wants me to do this so it was going to be magical. I was going to be electrifying. On fire for Christ. My sermons would make even the hardest heart turn to the word. I would be able to teach,” she jumped up, “and even the most stubborn Bible questions would become trivial. I Am,” she shouted, “God’s called instrument.” Sara melted into a pile in the floor. “I knew it wouldn’t be easy. But I never dreamed it would be this hard. They threw things at me.” Evie just watched her. Sara took a deep breath “At least they didn’t crucify me. There’s that.” There was a moment of silence as she rung a tissue between her fingers. “You know what I think hurt the worst?” She looked up at Evie with tear filled eyes, “Pastor Sam didn’t say a word. He just sat on the stage like a stone as a salad was thrown at me.” Evie didn’t say anything. But, yeah, she could relate. “I knew it would be challenging. But they threw things at me. Did I really do that bad? Were you just humoring me?” 

     Dillon came back into the room and sat down, “no you didn’t. Of course, you were a little nervous. That’s normal. Your message was clear. Easy to follow. I felt like you put a lot of hard work into your message.”

     “I did.” She bounced on her legs in the floor. “I did.” With force she started shredding the tissue, “I want to start my own church. I want to rip his congregation out from under him. I want him to know what not supporting his congregation feels like.” She lowered her head to the floor. “Even if he feels like women shouldn’t be preachers, they threw things at me.” She protested.

     Dillon sat up in his chair, “did anything they throw make contact with you?”

     She sniffed and sounded pitiful when she spoke, “yes.”

    “Would you be willing to go to the doctor?”

     She hung her head, “I can’t afford an e.r. visit.”

     “If I can get Patty to come over, will you let her check you out?”

     Sara nodded yes. Dillon was gone in a flash.