I had gone to Pleasant Valley Church with some friends and family because I wanted to see what the church was like now that I had been out of it and been Buddhist for a while. I think it was nearing evening, or maybe it was just very cloudy and in the afternoon, but they were holding a service in the sanctuary. It was a bit bigger than I remembered (wider) and it was funny to see so many people there that were dressed in street clothes instead of their "Sunday Best". Then again, it wasn't Sunday. I'm not sure what day it was, but it had the feeling of being sometime between Thursday and Saturday in the summer.
As I was sitting there in the service, I was looking around at everyone. I saw mom there, and I think that Matthew (brother) was there, as well as Uncle Rollin and a bunch of other people that I knew. Instead of a pastor leading the service, Ruth Wright (the church's secretary) was doing it.
Towards the end of the service, she handed out a bunch of small packages to everyone. Everyone got some sort of pamphlet and a key. When I saw the keys at first, I thought, "They're not cut!" because they were completely straight edged. Someone asked what they were for, and she said, "These are for those of you who need to get into the church and no one is here or if that door you need to come through is locked. For example, those of you that come in through the basement will now have your own key."
As she said this, she motioned to Uncle Rollin and Grandaddy Miller. Then a vision went off in my head, and I could see Uncle Rollin picking up Grandaddy from home, bringing him to church, and they parked in one of the spots down by the playground. They would come in through the basement and then took the stairs straight up to Granddaddy's classroom. (in reality, the fellowship hall and stage are right there, not classrooms)
I think then that someone was making some sort of point about if everyone had these keys, then someone could vandalize the church when no one else was there or something. At that time, Ruth said something along the lines of, "No, they're not keys. They key CHAINS" and I looked at it, and it was a key ring, which is what she meant by key chain. Soon after this, everyone seemed more relieved (although, somehow I knew that Uncle Rollin's and Granddaddy's keys would still work to get in through the basement for when they came to church on Sundays)
When the service was over, I milled around a little bit and talked to some people that I used to know pretty well (but I don't remember who) and I just hung around and looked at stuff. Finally I was ready to leave, so I went out into the parking lot and got into my car. There were a couple of people that got into the car with me, perhaps such as mom, Emily (wife), and maybe Matthew.
I turned and I tried to leave through the back side of the parking lot. I wound up going through the little paved road that went right through the middle of the cemetery. I was talking to the other people in my car, and I guess I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going, because I wound up almost hitting a headstone that was out in the middle of the road. It was Carol's (mother of two kids my mom used to babysit that I also went to church with) headstone.
I swerved to miss it, and I did miss it, but I wound up catching the corner of a small one (an old one for a baby) that jutted out a little into the road area, and I snapped it off at the base and knocked it around and over. The other people in the car didn't notice that one, though, because the one that was for Carol Wilson was so huge and in the middle of everything that it was the one that everyone else paid attention to. I didn't say anything about the one that I did hit because I didn't want them to know or notice.
We finally got out of the parking lot, and the next thing I know, I'm no longer really in the car, but I'm walking. I'm heading down the road that Mike's (former step-father) house is on, and as I passed it, I saw a bunch of people working on the house. Part of it was "normal", but most of it was only in the framing process. I saw Carol (different Carol. Mike's wife) working on it, along with a bunch of other people, some of whom I recognized, but others I didn't. There were a lot of family members there working on it, I believe.
The end close to the road (where my room used to be on the first floor) was the part that was all in framing. I remembered that they had had some sort of fire, and that's why it was being rebuilt. As I continued walking down in the direction of Grandmamma Miller's house, I kept looking at the building process going on. I realized that the second story was actually at the level with the road. The yard now sat a lot lower than it used to, so the first floor was now lower than the road. (which is opposite of how it really is. There's actually a fairly big steep bank leading down to the road, or there's a ditch or something)
As I got to the far end of their plot of land, I saw that there was another building process going on there. It was similar to the one that I had just passed. It was mostly framing, but the second story was even with the road, and there were some finished parts that were farther back. Somewhere in one of these finished parts, I remember perceiving that there was a television or radio on, and that was supposed to be entertaining Mike's an Carol's kids. The finished parts were evidently livable, and the kids were in there. Anyway, as I was passing this second construction part, I saw Matthew working on the closest upstairs room. I went over (I was able to just step from the road to the second floor) and started talking to him. He didn't really want to be there, but I don't remember how I replied to him. Finally I looked around a bit more, and I realized that this was a continuation of the house. As I looked into the back yard, I saw that there was a big section of house that joined the part that I remembered as being there, and this new part that I was standing on. It kind of made a U shape, and the yard was now pretty much in the middle. I think I got off the construction and continued walking.
The next thing I knew I was at Mike's parents' house. I was supposed to be outside, but for some reason, their house and garage were in this strange sort of building. It didn't fully have the feeling of being inside of a building, but more like a car port sort of thing that covered the entire place, including the yard. At the same time, there were walls and windows and doors all around us that really made it more of a garage like building than anything. There was some sort of discussion going on about all of this being under the roof, but I don't remember exactly what was being said.
At one point, someone was talking about how to get into the garage (again, I think it was Matthew?) and Grandmamma B (Mike's mom) seemed to be denying something about being able to get there conveniently from the house. Someone refuted her and talked about the door from out the back of her bedroom to the space between the garage and the house, and then there was a door right there that went into the garage. I went and took a look, and sure enough, there were two doors right across from one another: one on the house, and one on the garage.
As I looked between the buildings, there was a strange dim light that lit that "corridor" between the buildings even though we were under another roof. I think I realized it was a window in the "outer building" that was covered over with either sheets or plastic that was hung over it, and also hung on the far end of the house and the garage. I looked at this for a moment, feeling a sense of strangeness about it all.
No comments:
Post a Comment