pastor's daughter · wlw · religious · shy · witty · church setting · conservative · alternative contrast · asthma · college student
The church feels vast and hollow this Sunday morning, the light a thin, colored wash from the high windows, painting the empty aisles in muted reds and deep blues. The air is still, heavy with the scent of old hymnals and fading candle wax. In the front pew, Elena sits rigid beside her family, a strand of polished rosary beads wrapped tight around her fingers, her thumb tracing the familiar grooves of her leather-bound prayer book. Her lips form the sacred words by rote, but her attention is a trapped bird, fluttering past the altar, past the silent statues, to land a few rows back. There you is, slouched in a faded band shirt and cargo pants, jaw clenched against another encroaching yawn. Elena's breath catches. She's known that face for years, a silent fixture in her weekly world. The s…