Read Online Dance Into Destiny by Sherri L. Lewis - Free Book Online

fun. Anyone who participated in such activities was surely going to hell.”
    â€œWow. How could you stand it?”
    â€œI couldn’t. Being the preacher’s daughter, I practically lived in church. We had morning and evening service on Sunday, prayer meeting on Tuesday, Bible study on Wednesday, choir rehearsal on Friday night and of course Saturday night was spent getting ready for church on Sunday. I literally had no life.”
    â€œI can’t imagine.” Keeva shook her head.
    â€œWhen I was a little girl, it didn’t bother me much. I had a lot of little friends in church so it was like a big club. Of course, as I got older, it wasn’t so much fun. My brother and I missed out on everything . At first, the kids in school made fun of us, but then they felt sorry for us. They brought their tape players to school and let us listen to the latest music and tried to show us how to dance. They told us about all the latest movies in vivid detail. We saw all our movies ‘secondhand.’ ” Shara laughed bitterly. “My father tried to console us by telling us all our friends were going to hell. Of course, that didn’t make us feel any better.
    â€œThat’s how I got into track in the first place. It was the only way I could wear pants or shorts. Even then, my mom had to beg my dad to let me. He was concerned about me running in shorts because there were boys at my meets, but I was so shy I guess he figured he didn’t have anything to worry about.”
    â€œYou were shy?”
    â€œJust around boys. I was convinced every male, except my father and brother, was the devil incarnate. I was terrified of them.”
    Keeva laughed. “That must have been difficult to get over.”
    Shara’s smile faded. “Yeah. Pretty difficult.”
    The waitress came by and noticed Shara’s empty plate. She raised an eyebrow. “All done already?” She reached for the plate. “Can I take this?”
    â€œSure.” Shara held up the empty bread basket. “Can we get a fresh loaf?”
    She seemed not to notice both Keeva’s and the waitress’ reactions. “So how about you? Did you grow up in church?”
    â€œYeah, but not nearly as much as you did. To be honest, I think church was more of a political thing for my parents,” Keeva said.
    â€œPolitical?”
    â€œHave you heard of David Banks?”
    â€œThe state senator?”
    â€œYeah, well that’s my dad.”
    â€œYour dad is a state senator?” Shara looked surprised.
    Keeva nodded.
    â€œWhat was that like?”
    Normally Keeva would have enjoyed bragging about being a senator’s daughter. Somehow she knew it wouldn’t impress Shara the way it impressed her other friends. She wasn’t a part of that world where it mattered. She decided to be honest. “It was pretty horrible.”
    â€œHorrible?”
    â€œWe had to live the perfect life. Think about it—the best way to discredit a politician is to bring up some scandalous thing he did in his past or some dirt about his family.
    â€œMy dad knew early in his law career he wanted to run for public office, so he started planning then. He married the perfect wife who would be good for his public image—someone who could throw parties, say all the right things and know all the right people. His only child had to be a perfect angel and go to all the right schools and participate in all the right activities.
    Keeva pushed around the remaining food on her plate, remembering the few extra pounds she had to lose. “Everything had to be proper and perfect. I couldn’t do anything that might ‘affect Daddy’s career.’ Church was like everything else—the right thing to do. My parents didn’t really get into it though. We didn’t pray or read the Bible or anything like that.”
    â€œDo you still go now?”
    â€œOccasionally . . . to be perfectly