04 - CHURCH
Tim didn't like church particularly; he found it seriously down-putting.
It was almost like, "Jesus saved you from sin, so we should all thank him by pretending to be super-duper religious and saying loads of prayers and crap. Oh! And don't forget the sacrifice. Live in the needs, not the wants, peoples!"
He thought it was a load of crap. And once, he made the mistake of telling Jill this.
She was angry to begin with, but eventually resigned herself, and told her that in her
opinion, prayer wasn't about preaching, but thanking God for everything you have.
Tim didn't get it, but he went to church the next day with Jill, when she asked him to go with her.
The church was poorly-lit, and had a dreary look to it. If Jill was trying to win him over to the side of the preachy Christians, she was doing a bad job of it.
She ignored him, when he joked about it.
The service was boring, and drawn-out in Tim's opinion (not that anyone cared). But as all things do, it soon came to an end. He leapt from his seat, not noticing as Jill made a quick escape to the front of the church.
He didn't even notice until he reached the car.
"Jill? Fuck, Jill! Let's go!"
If she heard him, she didn't show it, instead she spoke to the priest in a hushed tone.
"Jill!"
"I'm done, Tim."
"Ok, let's go."
"But you're not."
"What!"
Jill looked pointedly towards the cross, indicating that she wanted Tim to have a quick prayer. Rolling his eyes, he obliged.
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Just talk. Pray."
He knelt, opting to humour her.
"Hey God, how you going?"
Jill glared behind him.
"Uh, haven't heard from me in a while, huh? Well, just wanna say, you're doing a good job, I'm happy, amen."
Clearly unimpressed, Jill wandered to his side, kneeling with slight difficulty due to the hump on her belly. She spoke quietly, and sincerely, the opposite of Tim's prayer.
"Dear Lord, it's been a while for me too, I guess. I'll need to work on that. Um, Thank yous are in order. So sincerely, I want to thank you for my husband, even if he isn't always the brightest bulb in the box. I want to thank you for my family, and for Tim's. I want to thank you for my job and my friends, but most of all, I want to thank you for the newest addition to our family." She rubbed her belly smoothly, eyes still tightly shut, "Thank you for blessing us with a child, it's more than I could ever have asked for, a little miracle. Uh, if there's one thing I'll ask of you this year, please enable us to have a safe delivery, and may our baby be happy, healthy and strong. Amen."
She crossed herself, and stood with difficulty, and all Tim could do was stare in odd disbelief, before he closed his eyes, and bowed his head.
"Dear Lord, what she said, amen."
Next up: 05 - Store
