The Advent of Hope by Emery C. Walters

Author:Emery C. Walters [Walters, Emery C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2017-11-25T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 3

The following Sunday was the first time we were all back in the campus chapel. It was, of course, Advent Sunday. What I’d been focusing on, besides Tory, was learning more Latin terms I couldn’t share like inpudicus, for homosexual, which actually stemmed from the Greek. Then I started finding images of old Greek statuary. Let’s just say that was extremely interesting, to me, if not to anyone else on my entire campus.

There remained only three more Sundays here before we left for Christmas vacation. I worried about whether or not I’d be welcome at home for that, and if not, where would I go? I could stay here, even though they did not keep any dorms open for the two-week-long vacation. Maybe there was a hostel in town, or maybe the University there had rooms open. I didn’t know. I had studying to do, however, and couldn’t worry about it right now. But still, I’d never been homeless before, and it was always on my mind.

Pastor was talking. I was doing all this thinking in church, in my favorite back pew where I could feel the fresh air leaking in from around the door.

“What is Advent?” he asked, thumping his lectern. I had to yawn so bad, it almost killed me to do it with my mouth closed. “Now, all we think about is Advent Calendars, right? And opening little doors and finding the candy inside. But this custom started in Germany when…”

I tuned him out. I heard him add something about the various themes for each Sunday and decided I need to pee, so I sneaked out the back door—another plus for sitting in the back.

Then I wandered outside. It was still snowy, although now there was slush, and there were dirty heaps of gray snow by the road and parking lot. The sidewalks had been shoveled, but shortcuts had been taken across the once pristine fields, leaving chewed up paths hither and yon. It was still beautiful, but cold. And I felt cold, too, in spite of my warm jacket. I remembered sliding down the hill and across the river, and smiled. How in hell was I going to live through this crush? What if he found out about it? What if anyone here found out about it, about my being gay? Would I be kicked out of school? Or just humiliated until I left on my own? Maybe I should start looking into other…who was I kidding? There was only one semester left.

People started trickling out of the chapel. They were talking about the Christmas party—no need to call it a holiday party here, right? Although I’d heard that in the outreach classes, there were eight different Protestants, two different types of Mormons, an agnostic, and a Jew. But we regular students were all, well, regular.

And that’s when I got the idea. The gift exchange. If only I could get Tory’s name, and then think up something to give him that would tell him how I felt, or indicate it, so that he sort of got the idea.

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