About Time

The Mission Starts on The Other side of This Door.

Those three-foot words were not above a door, but rather a line of eight shiny, ten-foot high glass doors separating Glory Of Devine Devotion And Magnificent Nirvana church from the outside. Gloria Danielson walked through these doors two hours ago to attend a meeting with Pastor Bob and Assistant Pastor Bill. Now she was leaving, and like she did every time, she looked up at the message before going out.

“What are you doing here?” That simple question would not have a simple answer and the questioner knew that. But it was only after it came out of her mouth did that knowledge register with the clarity of a cold slap. It was too late to take it back and just walk away, the fact was an unexpected, unplanned for bother had intruded, so she stopped and took a deep breath.
It wasn’t like he welcomed the greeting either, going from startled to embarrassed to replying in a subdued voice that showed reluctance, “Hi Gloria.” That’s all he could get out as he halted his steps toward the entrance. After the initial eye contact, moments and an effort were required to re-establish visual contact with her face. Maintaining eye contact, difficult at first, did grow steadier but kept words from forming in his mouth.
Seeing no further response coming, and uncomfortable waiting for the start to the answer to her question, she said, “This is certainly a surprise.”
“Isn’t it?”
After this quick exchange she still looked for an answer to her original question, although not being sure she wanted to get one. She looked directly at Peter Danielson and said, “So how have you been?”
For his part, he was still adjusting to being with someone from another life he’s trying to forget and move away from. For sure she appeared different, and meeting her here only reinforced his unease. “I’m doing good.”
“You look well.”
“Yeah, I like the direction my life is going now.” He started to feel more comfortable being here and continued, “ This a quite a place. Do you belong?”
This was the question that had to be asked. And now she couldn’t deflect or duck it, even if the answer was obvious. “Yes.”
He knew what she would say, still hearing it caused him pause. He weakly quizzed her, “Really?”
It was time to explain. She took time to take a breath and started in, “I was looking for something, something that would make me feel connected and really alive. And I found it here.” It was starting to flow and she ever so briefly hesitated before continuing with what she had begun to say.“ This place is so alive. The people have so much energy. Everything is so positive. What I did before is all forgiven. It doesn’t matter here because everything is all right. No one cares who or what I was, I’m a new person here! I’ve been saved.”
He could see and feel what she was saying seemed real. She was charged up and he felt prompted to open up and answer her first question. “ Well I’m going in to meet with Pastor Bill. A few weeks ago I met him at one of our meetings. He made me feel so good talking with him and when he offered individual counseling I took him up on it.”
“I hope he helps you feel better.”
“Thanks. I better be going. He’s expecting me.” He extended his hand to her. “It was good seeing you again and glad to hear things are looking up for you.”
She took his hand, squeezed it softly, and released it. Then watched him walk through the glass doors while memories rushed into her mind.

Just inside the doors was the men’s room. The coffee had gone right through him. The line of urinals was opposite the bright stainless steel sinks and sharp mirrors over them. As he relieved himself, he heard the door open and a set of steps walked to the sinks and stopped. Finishing, he stepped back slightly and turned to pull his zipper up as the fixture flushed. Turning fully around and looking up, he received a shock that shook and stopped him from taking another step. There she was facing him with slightly tilted forward head, a grin of no good and eyes he’d seen before. “Gloria, what are you doing here?” She kept looking at him with those eyes and with that look. Fear and danger came at him in a rush and he burst out, “You can’t be here. This isn’t right. You have to leave.” Those exhortations had no effect. She maintained the determined demeanor, only reacting to the words with a reach behind her on the shelf under the mirror. He knew what she picked up. “Gloria, no. No. You can’t be doing this.”
But she was and he watched her as she did it. He remembered the pipe. He remembered what it did to him. He remembered how it made him feel. He stood there without speaking and saw her reaction. She let out a purring moan and walked over to him. He tried to push her away and resisted her, but weakened when she rubbed her body against his while saying, “Peter, I’ve missed you. I’ve missed what we did together.”
It wasn’t the words as much as the feel of her going up and down against his shirt and pants. She had a body and she knew how to use it. And he took the loaded pipe from her, first thinking it would halt her, but the thinking changed when she stepped back towards the sinks and mirrors. The first thing to go was the clip that held her hair back. When she took the hair in her fingers and shook her head to free the strands, she gave out a moan that he gave into. As she shed her clothes, he kept giving in, and when she came over with nothing on, he handed the pipe back to her so he could join her.

They did it, and did it, right in front of the urinals, on the cold, hard tile floor.

She hesitated to dress, knowing that act would bring remove from the scene. And likely guilt. Yet she didn’t know what to say and rose, walked over to one of the piles of clothes and began to sort through them. She did this slowly and finding what were her’s, moved onto the next pile.
He didn’t look at her as if the sight would be forbidden. He knew what had just happened and that knowledge shunned him to silence. Once she had moved past the second pile, he got up and collected his underwear. He glanced over at her by the mirrors to see she was mostly dressed and was taking out a hairbrush. He continued gathering up clothes and putting them on.
“I don’t know where that came from.” Satisfied that her hair was presentable, she turned from the mirror to face him. “Actually I do know where that came from. You still do it to me Peter.”
“Look who’s talking,” he smiled and so did she. It was while smiling that he remembered something and reached in his pants pocket. “I gotta make a quick call.” He took the phone out, looked up a number and dialed it. “Pastor Bill, it’s Peter Danielson. I’m sorry to be calling you like this, but something came up at the last minute and kept me from our appointment. Please forgive me.”
“That’s ok Peter. I understand how things can come up. I was just here telling that to Pastor Bob. Don’t worry about it.”
“Thanks Pastor Bill.”
“Hey Peter, do you want to reschedule for tomorrow night? We could make it for the same time.”
“Let me get back to you on that Pastor Bill.”
“Ok, just give me a call. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
She barely waited till he hung up,” Well that was thoughtful.”
He looked at her after putting the phone back in his pants and said, “Speaking of thoughtful, what would we have done if someone came in here?”
Almost as though she had anticipated the question, she answered, “There’s nobody else in the building at this time of night.”
“What about Pastor Bob and Pastor Bill?”
“They have their own bathroom back near their offices. They would never come out here.”
He thought back to how reckless it felt and how that compounded his excitement. How the idea that they might be caught stirred him even more. It was as though any and all consequences were immaterial to her desire for him. Now hearing that she had considered the situation didn’t so much take away from the events but bring his mind to more practical matters. “You never did tell me what you were doing here tonight. That is before you met me.”
“I’m a member of the finance committee and we had a meeting.”
“Judging from the looks of this place, you must have a lot of money to deal with.”
She didn’t respond at first. She was being thoughtful again, and those thoughts were tramping on new ground. Still thinking, she weakly replied, “Yeah, we have a lot of money.” Even her echo to his remark fed into the thinking. Finally she said, “Peter, I have the weirdest thought.”
“More? You’re really on a roll tonight. You can’t be serious?”
His incredulous look failed to bring a quick response from her occupied mind. She came out of the delay with, “ Do you have any idea how money I saw tonight?”
“I can’t say that I do.”
“Take a guess. Go ahead. Take a guess.”
“I don’t know – ten thousand.”
“Try ninety seven thousand!”
“Wow, that’s some real money.”
“And do you know what ninety seven thousand looks like in fives, tens and twenties? It’s called a bundle.” She stopped to let go a laugh that he joined in with. She went on. “The main purpose of our meeting is to count and sort all the bills. It takes six of us over an hour.”
“Where did all that money come from?”
“That’s the take from the weekend offering.”
He found this information amazing and it took him back. “Ninety seven thousand in one weekend. That’s unbelievable.”
“Actually its not when you consider we have over eight thousand members.”
“God, I knew this place was big. I had no idea how big it was.”
She put the hairbrush back into her purse and zipped the compartment closed. Then she spent moments looking at herself in the mirror as if in study. The thoughts had returned, this time in full force. As much as the thoughts raced, action could not be mustered in response.
The moment had gone on long enough, and he broke it. “Now what?”
This leading question put her into motion. “We take the money.”
“Take what money?”
“The ninety seven thousand.”
He looked at her and kept looking and saw the look he knew and had seen not long ago. And he remembered how her unpredictability was the thing that excited him most. “You’re serious aren’t you?”
“Not only that, I got it all figured out. I got keys and combinations to every lock and every security system override between us and the money. They’re masters at raising money, but sloopy incompetents at handling it.”
“What about Pastor Bob and Pastor Bill?”
“They won’t see us.”
“What about the ramifications?”
“I was getting tired of this place anyway.” She opened her purse, took out the pipe and a small aluminum foil packet, unfolded the foil and loaded the pipe. “Here’s let’s have another round. It’ll do us good.” She handed him the pipe and took out her lighter. He didn’t immediately take the pipe and she took it back and did it herself. After she took it all in, she reloaded and handed it to him again. He took it this time. The, her first, him second, pattern was repeated once more. Stuffing the pipe into her purse, she proclaimed, “Let’s go.”
He followed her quick strides out of the men’s room and into the long hallway that skirted the sanctuary.
“Yes. Yes. Yes.” She said this under her breath as they walked past the grand entrance to the sanctuary, and kept repeating it as they walked down another hall to a set of doors. It was like this was a crazed mantra that propelled her forward. At the doors she took out a set of keys and found the one to put in the door.
The hall kept going and they took another hallway that came in from the left. This hallway was carpeted and was not as wide as the one they came from. They passed several closed doors and came to a set of locked doors in the hallway. As she fished for the right key, he said, “Are you sure? Are you sure we should be doing this?”
She turned to him before putting the key in the door. “Look, ninety seven thousand is nothing to this church. Losing it will not make one iota’s difference to what goes on around here.” She put the key in the door and opened it. “Just think what we’ll do with the money.”
They continued down the hallway, passing several closed doors, until he almost walked into her when she stopped at a door. She gazed into the small glass window on the door for a long moment, then stepped aside and motioned him to come to the window.
On the large screen at the opposite end of the room were two naked men embracing. Even in the dim light of the room it was not hard to make out Pastor Bob and Pastor Bill, also naked, in an unholy clutch on top of the large table. They were on some kind of fluffy white blanket. After watching the scene for eye filling seconds, he felt a tug on his sleeve. She waved him forward several steps.
He could not contain himself. “My God, that was disgusting.”
“Wasn’t it?”
“I can’t believe what I just saw.”
She fixed her eyes into his and smile formed on her face. “It doesn’t surprise me. It fits in perfectly with the acronym of this, so-called, church. I say Goddamn!” Taking him by the arm she said, “Come on let’s grab the money.”