Dialogue Concerning the Imminent Apocalypse

colloquy four: christmas shoppers

Five days seemed like a reasonable amount of time to Louise. Connie Anne could go through all of the stolen papers, the illegal papers, in no more than an hour or two. She'd begin tests immediately because she was Connie Anne, and she always wanted things to be happening at that exact moment in time. She would miss a few nights at the window to work, possibly on whatever secret she's keeping up on Capitol Hill. And although she would probably sound as if she already had one foot in the loony bin, Louise would listen if she found anything. Connie had believed in the Ring, after all. Louise decided she owed it to her friend to listen to whatever proposal she had to make.

However, the prepossessing Patricia Morris must have had other plans in mind. Because right after church that Sunday—December 14, 1958—she showed up at Louise's front door in an outfit fit for the princess of England and asked to see the jiggling atoms again.

Louise was startled, to say the least. It had been nearly four in the afternoon when she and the rest of her family had returned home; Anacostia River Church was led by a verbose minister and composed of an even gabbier congregation. There were God-fearing songs and mandatory responses to Pastor Solomon's greetings and firey prayers for the Lord's salvation above resonant organ playing—and there was scuttlebutt about Connie's suspender incident. Mama usually went by herself for the after-service gossip, but she would occasionally force Louise to come and listen to the choir's tremulous version of Blessed Assurance because that was what the women in her family were supposed to do. 

Unfortunately, Louise and her mother weren't by themselves for another one of their five-hour long excursions to church that day. It had been very loudly agreed upon that the entire family would go about two weeks before and on Christmas, two weeks before and on Easter, and two weeks before and on Mama's birthday. (After a particular homily on the evils of nicotine in the summer of '55, Daddy—with a cigarette twitching at the corner of his mouth—had shouted up the stairs at Mama as she spat Bible versus at him. Louise hadn't been old enough to understand how the conflict was resolved later that night, but she could very distinctly remember the screaming and the subsequent itch of her new Catholic school uniform on her first day of third grade. The word compromise played like a broken record in her head.) But whenever her male family members stepped onto the conversational grounds of the church, there were disastrous consequences. 

Daddy's hands constantly found themselves in his back pocket, searching for a pack of cancer sticks despite the fact that he'd left them on the counter at home. But it didn't matter that he didn't have them with him; all that mattered was that Mama, Pastor Solomon, Mrs. Dumont (who was most certainly not going to turn a blind eye—even though she truly was blind in one eye) were all watching him with stern eyes each and every time he reached down. And Louise could hardly count the number of times a slouching, suit-donned Lawrence had been told, "My, how big you've grown! You were this tall when I last saw you!"

Each new clergy member's hand inched down a little farther when demonstrating how tall this tall truly was.

Grateful to be back home, Louise was just about to settle down and start reading one of her overdue library books before dinner when Mama's voice led her downstairs with, "Louise! There's someone here to see you!"

Louise brushed her hands against her creased pants leg and padded across the floor, slowly creeping into the light the doorway offered. There was Patricia Morris in her pastel church dress, her eyes sparkling like a pair of distant stars that had come far too close to Earth for comfort. Her eyes burned, too, as they trailed along Louise, and she could feel her skin growing warmer.

Louise came to the doorway. "Hello, Pat," she greeted with a meek smile.

Patricia awkwardly brushed her own hands down her pink bodice, but the move seemed graceful and calculated to Louise. Her lopsided grin took the Louise's breath away. "Hi! I just got back from church, if you haven't noticed. I would've changed, but I had to come talk to you about"—she lowered her voice and leaned in closer—"well, about the experiments we conducted last week. Can I come in?"