Flying to church

[pegkerr]

I blearily opened my eyes this open and squinted at the clock--and sat up with a screech, my heart hammering. "8:51??? What happened to my alarm?"

"You turned it off," Rob said sleepily beside me.

"No way!" I bounded out of bed. "Girls!"

They came running upstairs. They were still in their pajamas, and I groaned. "No, no! You're not even dressed?"

"What is it?" they asked.

"I'm Assistant Minister today! I'm supposed to be standing in front of the congregation in less than ten minutes! Why the hell didn't you wake me up?" Which was a really unfair accusation.

"I didn't know," Fiona said.

"I forgot," Delia admitted in a small voice.

I was already ripping a sweater and jeans out of my closet. "I don't have time to wait for you. Daddy's home from work today, so you can stay with him." I ran to the phone and somehow managed to dial it while getting my jeans on.

"Hope Lutheran Church," Pastor voice said calmly.

I winced, appalled at the magnitude of my error. "Pastor . . . I slept through my alarm. I just woke up."

"Oh boy," he said.

"I'll get there just as quickly as I can!"

"Well, just slip into the side door and join us when you can."

No breakfast, no makeup, no time to warm up the voice, dirty hair. Tough. I raced out to the garage, and got into the car. I didn't run any red lights, but I was pushing the speed limit the whole way. I ran into the church, dumped my coat in Pastor's office, grabbed an alb out of the closet and fumbled to put it on, catching my hair in the velcro closures. My hands were shaking as I fastened the cord around my waist. The prelude was still playing; good. I opened the door and slipped to the seats to the side where the acolyte and the ministers sit. Pastor had just walked to the front and was doing the announcements. The choir director was sitting in my place, with the assistant minister's mike on.

"I'm here," I hissed. "I'm sorry. I can take it."

"Are you sure?" she whispered. "You can do the psalm without going through it first?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes. I'll punt. Just give me the mike." We exchanged the hardware, and she slipped back out the door as I clipped the mike on and put the power pack into my pocket.

And so I made it in time. The Kyrie was spoken, not sung today, and there was no Communion. It was still tough, though. We have a new organist, who gave me a couple of shocking miscues, making me stumble once as I led the Hymn of Glory, but I just gritted my teeth, concentrated on tapping out the beat with my foot, and blundered on, even though the organ was all wrong. I could feel the reek of my own sweat, prompted by the adrenaline rush, and of course, I hadn't put on any deodorant.

We got through the service. Pastor and I recessed to the back during the final hymn, and I gave the dismissal and we went back to the Narthex to exchange greetings with the people leaving.

"Wonderful job!" they said, smiling as they filed out and shook my hand.

I smiled grimly and reached into my pocket to turn off the microphone. If you only knew.

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