September Lessons by Hildred Billings

Author:Hildred Billings [Billings, Hildred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Lesbian Romance
Publisher: Barachou Press
Published: 2019-09-08T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

LEIGH-ANN

Leigh-Ann didn’t often volunteer at Waterlily House the same days she went to church, since Sunny insisted that she “have a proper teenaged life,” whatever that meant. Did they think that because she wasn’t paid to help out, she didn’t want to do it? Sure beat lazing around the house, bored out of her mind. Even if Leigh-Ann wasn’t scheduled to work, she sometimes rode her bike out to the house for the sole purpose of getting some exercise.

Too bad Carrie had been too busy to hang out with her. When Leigh-Ann texted her the night before to see what she was doing Sunday afternoon, she got a reply comprised of nothing but pizza emojis.

What was the point of them being friends if they couldn’t hang out after school? Was it really too much for Leigh-Ann to ask for someone to see on a personal basis again?

Times like these made her miss the “good ol’ days,” back when she had supposed friends to hang out with and talk to on the phone. These days, almost everyone texted. But there had been that blissful time in middle school when she, Christina, Amanda, and maybe a couple others were all on the line together. That almost never happened now.

Thinking about Carrie made her miss a lot of things. Things Leigh-Ann wasn’t sure she really wanted to think about as she sat through a sermon about sinning in the eyes of the Lord. Her father fell into a respectful doze while her mother slyly texted a friend. The only people paying attention to church were those in the first three rows of pews.

Sinning, huh? Leigh-Ann never put much stock in this whole religion thing, but sometimes the talk about sinning and repenting made her think about her life so far – and the lives of those she knew. Whoever is responsible for the barn fires is definitely going to hell if they don’t repent. They killed a cow. There weren’t enough jokes about steaks and jerky in the world to make up for the loss of the Gladsbury’s milk cow. The church had a donation jar at the entrance to go toward the purchase of a new cow, but most folks around there knew how much like family those animals were to the folks depending upon them for daily life. “We will always miss Holly the happy cow,” the message on the print-out said, “but we shall move forward with a new soul, the Grace of God looking over us.”

“That poor cow,” Leigh-Ann’s mother had said when they first entered the church. “It’s not right for bad eggs to make light of God’s creations.”

You know who else is going to hell? Leigh-Ann’s eyes darted between the hymn book and the Bible slotted in the seat before hers. Me. Probably.

She didn’t know why she was going to hell. Nor did she know why she cared, since she was agnostic at best, probably an atheist at “worst,” but that was the thing about growing up in a place like that.

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