The Price of Coffee

Chapter 5: Meeting the Church Folk

Clarrisa knocked on Tabitha’s door and yelled. “Good morning, mighty woman of God. Time to rise and shine. We have church today.”

Tabitha groaned. “Are you serious?” it’s Sunday. Shouldn’t we be sleeping in?”

“Nope, you live with me. You go to church. It’s my turn to speak today, so you’ll get some of the message anyway.”

“I really just wanted to sleep in, are you sure I have to go?” Tabitha whined

Clarrisa sighed, “Yes, now get up. I’m leaving in an hour.” She did not wait for Tabitha to respond as she turned and left the room. Tabitha grumbled about it being too early for any of this today. And crawled out of bed to get dressed. She wore a simple wrap around floral dress and white flats. She decided to leave her hair down as it was comfortable temperature this morning. She stormed out of the room and sat at the table while her aunt pushed a cup of coffee in her direction.

“I do recommend you wear your hair up during church days.” Clarrisa said while looking over her sermon notes.

“Why?” Tabatha asked.

“Because.. I’ll just let you discover that one for yourself. Come on it’s time to go.”

The church they were going to was less than a quarter mile from their home. As they walked into the building Tabitha was surprised by what she saw. Her only experiences with church was the large church her mother and father made her visit on Easter, mother’s day, and Christmas. What she saw was vastly different from what she was used to seeing. Gone were the padded pews and in it’s place was hardwood benches, half the church was concrete, the other half was dirt floor with hay and straw covering the floor. There was no air conditioning and as people started piling in the room became stale and smelled. Thankfully because aunt Clarissa was speaking, Tabitha got to sit up front and away from the crowd. At least the music equipment was modern. On the stage, they had a keyboard, drums, and a decent speaker system. She followed her aunt who seemed to shake hands with every single person she met. Well, at least that’s a little familiar.

“Good morning, Tabitha.”

Tabitha looked up from her phone to see Tyler. Her mouth dropped open. Tyler was dressed in a suit and freshly showered, hair slicked back. Her mouth went dry. This scruffy looking man cleans up nice.

“Aren’t you a tall drink of water this morning?”

Tyler smiled. “thank for the compliment. Mind if I sit with you?”

“No, I don’t mind at all.”

As Tyler sat down, the pastor introduced the worship team and Tabitha became entranced. This worship service was nothing like she had seen. This seemed closer to the concerts she had been to than a church service. People were standing and singing loudly, some were jumping, others were raising their hands. Up front was a team of dancers but these weren’t adults, these were kids, the oldest didn’t look over the age of 12. She felt out of place. What surprised her the most was her aunt and Tyler. Her quiet and reserved aunt was raising her hands and jumping up and down with the rest of them. And Tyler had his hands raised with a look of peace over his face. She wondered what made Tyler such at peace.

The worship leader interrupted her thoughts. She couldn’t understand what he was saying, but she assumed it was for the offering since there was two baskets placed out front that wasn’t there before. What she didn’t expect was the upbeat music and people dancing to the front. She had never seen people so happy to give money away.

Tyler took that moment to say, this is when people go around and shake hands.”

“I'll stay right here, thank you.”

Tyler chuckled, you can stay there but be warned, they are going to come shake yours.”

Tabitha didn’t believe him, but it was just a couple of seconds several people were coming to shake her hand. She politely shook their hands praying the song would end soon.

The song finally ended and Tabitha thought that would be the end of the worship service. She was disappointed. The worship service continued for another 30 minutes. When her aunt finally got up to speak Tabitha was ready to get up and stretch, she had trouble concentrating on the message because her back hurt so bad. All she got out of the message was the theme, God desires the best for our lives.

It took all Tabitha had, hit to snort. If God really desired the best for her life; she would be here in this awful part of the world. She just wanted to go home, and climb into her orthopedic bed and cover herself with her feather comforter then sleep for a week.

She was glad when the service was finally over. She got ready to leave all these people were coming up to her to shake her hands. As she walked past them, she felt fingers running through her hair. She turned around to look and then noticed the little kids were the culprit. Then next thing she knew was being asked by groups of people asking to ‘get a shot’ with her. She wasn’t sure what a shot was so she didn’tknow how to answer.

Tyler came behind her, “they want a picture with you.”

“why?”

“Your new, taking pictures have become a big part of the culture. Are you okay with that. If not, I can make an excuse for you.”

“It’s fine, I can take pictures.” Tabitha replied.

“okay, let me know when you are done, I’ll help you exit gracefully.” Tyler said.

Tabitha took pictures with so many people that she began to understand how a celebrity felt. By the time she made it out the door she was exhausted.

She looked at Tyler and he looked at her in silent question. She nodded letting him know she was ready to go. He walked over to her. She asked where her aunt was. He explained that she will have church meetings today and he was in charge of making sure she got home okay.

When she arrived home, he walked her to her door. He smiled at her.

“What?” she asked.

“You really ought to see your hair. It’s all tangled.”

“She sighed. I know on between the wind and the children touching my hair, it’s a mess.” It will be up next week.”

“I did want to talk to you about what you said last week.” Tyler said getting serious.

“What do you mean?” Clarrisa asked confused.

“When you invited me in and asked me scratch your ‘itch’. I would ask that you refrain from making statements like that on the future. It is inappropriate.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes. “I only said that because you were making fun of me. I know your type. You’ll run the first time a woman makes even an insinuation of s*x. But if it makes you feel better. I will refrain in the future.” She watched his nostrils flare. She could tell she was angry.

“Thank you for that good day, Tabitha.” Tyler turned around and left Tabitha

She smiled as she went inside. “Its so fun messing with him.”