Read Online Saved Folk in the House by Sonnie Beverly - Free Book Online

she dropped her bag and went from room to room looking for her husband.
    “What’s wrong, baby?” Jay asked, running to his wife.
    She grabbed him and hugged and squeezed him. He hugged her back.
    “What is it, baby?” he asked again, only a little less alarmed.
    She spoke to him in her newly found language.
    “Huh?”
    “Baby, I went to that church, and it was totally awesome. The people greeted me at the door with friendly smiles and warm hugs. The music was just so uplifting, and the preacher, oh wow, the preacher was so awesome. He was walking up and down the aisles as he preached . . . and he preached, you hear me, I am telling you, he preached! In all the Sunday school and church I’ve been to, I never ever heard anybody preach like that. It was absolutely liberating. I feel so free, so rejuvenated, so brand-new. Oh, and guess what? I joined and was taken to the back room, and I spoke in tongues. That’s what I just spoke to you. They said tongues would be my power. So guess what? Guess what? I was speeding and a policeman stopped me and I started speaking in tongues and the policeman told me to have a nice day and he didn’t even give me a ticket,” Zakia said all in one breath.
    “Huh?”
    “I found us a new church, baby.”
    “What’s wrong with the old one?”
    “It’s not about what’s wrong with the old one, it’s about what’s right with the new one, baby. You got to check it out.”
    “Baby, I am not looking for a new church,” Jay said.
    “You have to check it out, Jay.”
    “Zakia, I have dealt with all of your other ventures and adventures, but now you are talking church. You have crossed the line. My dad is a deacon at our church, for crying out loud. And you just up and joined some other church. You have really, really gone too far this time.”
    “But, Jay . . .”
    “But Jay nothing. Now, let’s get ready to go to our church.”
    “But . . .”
    “This discussion is over.”
    They went to Fig Tree Baptist, and absolutely everything seemed wrong about it to Zakia. Deacon Morris flirted with Sister Ann while his wife ushered. Two of the choir members were rolling their eyes at each other. Brother Braxton smelled like alcohol. The male choir director’s eyebrows looked like they had been waxed. The offering bucket came around four times. People were sleeping while Rev. Fisher preached, and he didn’t open the Bible, just read from notes. She couldn’t wait to go back to Faith in the Word Christian Center, with or without her husband.
    Zakia took the next day off work to go over to her new church. She spent the day learning about it. She learned about all the ministries and the weekly Bible studies. They even had a Bible Institute where she could earn college credit. She realized that she had so much to learn, and she couldn’t wait to get started. She spent another few hundred dollars in the bookstore. She bought several versions of the Bible, concordances, commentaries, cassettes, and videotapes. She bought caps and T-shirts bearing the slogan “What Would Jesus Do?” for the boys. All week long as she studied her material, she bugged Jay to go to church with her the following Sunday.
    “Look, baby, you can do whatever you want. I don’t have time to go with you on all your little trips. This is one I am not going on. I have been at my church all my life. I was born there, and I’m going to die there,” he said, sounding like his father.
    “Please, Jay, just once. Come with me next Sunday, and if you don’t like it, I promise I won’t ever bother you about it again.”
    Jay went to church with her the following Sunday hard-hearted and closed up. Based on his conventional upbringing, he was expecting a traditional-looking building with stained-glass windows.
    “Where’s the steeple?” he asked as they entered the church.
    “Oh, Jay, just wait until you hear the preacher. You are going to forget all about that kind of stuff.”
    Jay had a bad attitude the whole