We hid behind the grand old magnolia tree on the front lawn to watch Juniper and Corky climb the steps to the heavy oak doors that opened in toward the entrance hall.
Two men in their Sunday suits stood at the doors to welcome them to the service. We could see around them inside the wide doors. On the wall there was a picture of Jesus with long brown hair and a long beard with light around his face looking up to heaven. Under the picture there was a long table with the words “This Do In Remembrance Of Me” carved into the front of it. There were colorful spring flowers and gold offering plates on top of it.
The men reached out to shake hands with Juniper and Corky. Juniper took his hand from Corky’s shoulder to offer a handshake in return. Corky wobbled at the sudden freedom and fell into the arms of one of the shocked men. You should have seen that usher’s face! He looked like he had just eaten a plain radish chased by a spoonful of castor oil! He pushed Corky back onto the embarrassed Juniper and into the other usher. He must have breathed in Corky’s smell because he turned his face away.
The confused group held onto each other and sort of jitterbugged their way into the church. They stopped in stunned surprise in front of the table. Corky raised his arms. A bottle of liquor he was hiding in the waist of his wrinkled, baggy pants fell out and crashed onto the marble floor. As the congregation sang about streams of mercy flowing down from the cross, streams of whisky flowed everywhere else. Pieces of glass gleamed in the flood of light.
“What the …?!” gasped one usher.
“Get him out of here right now!” yelled the other usher.
Poor Juniper looked frantically around for a broom or a cloth to clean up the mess. The smell of the whisky wafted over the lawn and burned our noses. What were the folks in the sanctuary thinking?
“Go on! Get him outta here! We’ll clean it up!" screamed the ushers.
The bewildered Juniper took Corky into his arms and limped him down the steps and onto the sidewalk. They hobbled away.
The ushers came out onto the steps. Nervous chuckles gave way to relieved belly laughs.
“He oughtta’ve known not to bring him here. Especially when he’s drunk. Somebody needs to sit down with that young monk and let him know what’s what.”
“Yeah, the next thing you know he’ll be tryin’ to bring nig..."
We moved on around the tree and started for the seed store.
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