Emmie 17

It was Friday, the end of another week and Emmie was on her way back from the covered market. She thought she would just pop into church on the way back and have a word with Him upstairs.She pushed against the heavy door and stood in the sense of coolness tinged with a scent of guttering candle wax. The emptiness was quite dark, lit only by the red and blue light through the stained glass windows of the nave. She brushed her fingers against each pillar of the south aisle, recalling the many fingers of a century of days before. How many hands..........?


Making her way to the sanctuary, she genuflected on the lower step and walked slowly towards the candles holder at the foot of the statue of the Sacred Heart. She placed two small candles on their spikes and lit them with a match from the box on the ledge below the statue. They stood there, upright and plain, each with its steady flame, untouched by any draught. There was one in remembrance of David and one for the future of Yasmin.

She sat in the front pew quite quietly. Her hands rested in her lap as she drifted into the past. She saw the image of David in his skullcap with a cream silk prayer shawl around his shoulders. In her mind's eye she counted the tassels and as she did, she saw his hands with palms upwards slightly stretched towards the altar. She held him there and as she did, she felt the tears slowly blear her eyes and as they flowed she felt his image slip away.

Yasmin shimmered in a more vibrant light but was just as present, there in her pale blue hijab and modest school uniform. As she turned she smiled with a faint wave of the hand. Emmie gathered them both to her, placing them in her heart before The Lord, the one being held in her love from the past, the other in her care for the future. There they were, Christian, Muslim and Jew, a faceted trinity of individual souls, joined in Emmie's heart without any religious chains to nail them to the world's uncertain ground.

Emmie became aware of the traffic drone outside and with a rueful smile
wiped her eyes with a cursory finger, tucked her scarf deeper in her collar, crossed herself and made to leave this moment of peace for the hurly burly of the world outside.


Father Costello found her sitting there, quite still when he came to lock up, just as it was going dark.

JL Oct. 7. 11:44