Green Chartreuse and Tears

By The Reverend Mrs. Silence DoGood

Dear Editor,

Having after-dinner-drinks at the River Creek Inn with my best friend Alice Bright Light is a joy. We usually meet at least once every two weeks but maybe more often depending on our schedules. I usually leave our meetings with a better understanding of human nature. But the last meeting was disturbing.

Alice is an evidential medium and psychic and her insights into people are revealing. Being a full blooded Chippewa Indian raised on the Turtle Sky Reservation in North Dakota make her insights unique. She was shunned by her family and whole tribe because of her appearance. They all called her “Wolf.” She internalized her growth by concentrating on her spirit with the help of the Tribe’s shaman. He was her only friend and confidant.

Alice lives in a small rented studio apartment in Hoaverston our County Seat. When I first visited her there her apartment was all white and sterile. No color, no wall-hangings, no knickknacks. Her few pieces of furniture and her floor were painted white. She wanted to live empty and feel like those who had lost a loved one. She thought this would make her a better medium.

That all changed when Alice met Dilys Brown a NYC fund raiser who the Church hired to help raise funds after the fire. Dilys has done an amazing job raising funds which we have dedicated to the purchase of a new organ. Willie, my husband who is the Church’s Organist and Choir Master, is in charge of choosing the replacement organ. He is in touch with two builders in England and one in Ohio.

Dilys Brown is exquisitely beautiful. She received her green eyes and blond hair from her Welsh mother and her black skin from her Jamaican father. Her trademark is that she always kisses everyone on the lips every time she meets them.

After Dilys kissed Alice on the lips Alice later told me that she had never been kissed. She also told me that she wasn’t sure who her father was and that her mother didn’t love her because she was so ugly. Then she whispered that she had never been loved.

Last Thursday Alice and I sat at our usual booth at the Inn. I was so looking forward to it. My life after the Church fire has been so difficult. But after our usual Green Chartreuse on the rocks was set before us and the waiter left Alice began to cry.

“I’m no longer Grace. Dilys moved out.” Grace was the name Dilys gave Alice.

Dilys was staying with Alice while she was fund raising. When I last saw Alice’s apartment it had colorful paintings, bright quilts on both the bed and the blow up mattress, a yellow tablecloth, red cushions on the two painted chairs and knickknacks on the once empty shelves.

Dilys was offered a huge salary at a startup company in San Francisco. She will raise money to fund their AI research. Their newly developed artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to revolutionize the industry.

“Dilys told me she was leaving without any warning. Now I understand the death of a loved one.”

Alice was crying uncontrollably so I reached across the table and held her hand to comfort her. As I did I noticed that Mrs. Helen Baxter was sitting near us watching. She is the Church’s most active volunteer and hates that I am friends with a medium who talks to the dead and invites them to séances.  Now she’ll have more ammunition against me seeing me holding the hands of a person whom she considers to be evil. Helen won dinner at the Inn in a Church raffle.

My Church is congregated by loving people but jealousy and hatred cleverly lurks in the rafters as well. I have invited Helen on my New Church Committee to help shape the construction of our new Church. I will follow up with her on her promise to hold a party for me when I launch my book.

Amen.

The Reverend Mrs. Silence DoGood

Senior Pastor

Executive Director

President

Chairman

Choir Master (part-time)

The First Church of God’s Love

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