8. WW goes to church

It was a lovely sunshiny day. Being a Sunday, WW made the impromptu decision to go to church.

They had been regular church-goers when they were younger, but had stopped going when their parents became more interested in conducting MLM businesses than the true reason people should be going to church services for. As a result, their parents were asked to stop badgering people to join their MLM group. This caused their parents to first become furious at being told not to conduct business in church and then become too embarrassed to show their faces or to take their children to church again, particularly when the MLM company they were with collapsed.

WW snuck into the back row just before the start of service and were surprised when their old Sunday School teacher, who happened to be the choir master, recognised them. She waved them over to the empty seats near her. WW used to be in the childrens' choir and this old teacher had loved them to bits because they could harmonise together without any practice or music sheets. WW exchanged looks of apprehension when their old teacher suggested they sit near the choir to help them out.

When Blue Suede Shoes unexpectedly walked in the door with Aunty Lynn, they dragged him over to join them before he could protest. Before he could say anything, the pastor started the pre-service prayer and under Aunty Lynn's glare, Blue Suede Shoes didn't dare make a peep.

When the praise and worship started, WW scratched their heads. They didn't recognise most of these songs. They'd been out of church for so long that there were a whole heap of new songs they'd never heard before. Nevertheless, under their old teacher's encouragement, they speedily learnt these songs and were just starting to get a hang of things, when the song changed. And again. And again.

WW were frustrated at this, but were relieved to find that the last song was one they all knew and recognised. Before they knew it, they'd gotten into the swing of things. Pig Head ended up taking over conducting the choir, while Blue Suede Shoes couldn't keep his itchy fingers still. After a moment's struggle with himself, Blue Suede Shoes joined the pianist at the piano and began playing the bass, while the pianist shifted to play the higher keys in a duet style, following Blue Suede Shoe's prompting and the old teacher's gestures to allow him. Following Blue Suede Shoe's change in the rhythm and style, Lemming Three stirred up the younger kids sitting nearby to sing and leap about with him, dancing and screaming with excitement in time to the music. Meanwhile Lemming Four nudged the other youth, their old friends, into a competitive singing round, so that they sang counter melody to the choir. Tigress grabbed the hands of one of the nearby elderlies, pulling them up onto their feet.

The song melded into another brighter and even more cheerful song under Blue Suede Shoe's skillful fingers. He called out the chords to lead the band. The children danced around with Lemming Three, pulling their older brothers and sisters, and then their parents into the aisles to dance with them. It wasn't long before the entire church was up and dancing, cavorting about the sanctuary hall while singing and clapping their hands. Not a few of the elderlies danced with their wheeled walkers and walking canes. Even the pastor joined in whooping as he danced with his wife. Only perhaps a quarter of the church remained at their seats, watching the other three quarters having fun with embarrassed frowns and awkward smiles.

The song finished with a crescendo and a tremulous bang. Six eighths of the church cheered and clapped, returning puffing to their seats with huge smiles. The remaining two eighths sat down quietly. One eighth of which looked somewhat affronted and disgruntled by the wild chaos WW had caused, frowning at them with dark faces.

"Wooo!" the pastor yelled. "Who said church couldn't be fun? Who said we have to be solemn and serious all the time? Let's do that again later after we've all caught our breath. You young people," he pointed at WW, "have to come every week from now on."

WW, who had crept back to their seats after convincing the younger children who had run rampant to return to their seats under Aunty Lynn's stern eye, had not expected this praise. They had expected a scolding. Particularly Lemming Three who was still covered in children. The children refused to leave him to sit in their original seats. The man could barely be seen under the number of children still hanging onto him. He had encouraged the children to go wild with him, after all. Now they had turned into real miniature hooligans who refused to leave him alone. WW had to move seats to give the sea of children space or risk being drowned under them with him. Lemming Three had a feeling he would receive the scoldings of various parents when the church service was over for enticing them away from sitting quietly with their parents.

At the pastor's request, WW all stood up to give belatedly embarrassed self-introductions to the rest of the church who had not seen them for more than a decade. Their misgivings were somewhat soothed by the thunderously welcoming applause from the rest of the congregation.

"Oh, I remember them," an old lady's voice was heard to exclaim. "They're those gifted, noisy kids from those nosy MLM families that left years back. Their parents were quite the nuisance, but I remember that the kids were as sweet as sour honey mustard."

WW ducked their heads in confused embarrassment. What a way to remember them. And what was with the comparison to sour honey mustard? Did anyone know? Anyone? Anyone?

The sea of children dragged Lemming Three to the Sunday School with them when they were dismissed from the main service. His protests were drowned out by their enthusiastic cheers. The old Sunday School teacher followed the crowd of children with a seraphic smile. The rest of the church service continued calmly after the titters following the exodus of children died down. The calm ordinariness of a usual church service was interrupted at the closing song following the conclusion of the pastor's preaching.

"Waitwaitwait," the pastor, waved at the band and choir, interrupting them. "Let's invite our young friends back up to brighten up the atmosphere and finish the service with a party!"

The band and choir halted the song prelude they had been playing, messing up their careful practice. Momentary high pitched feedback from one of the speakers made everyone wince until the sound was brought back under control by the technical team in the PA booth.

"Go on, son," Aunty Lynn called out to Blue Suede Shoes with pride in her voice. "What're you waiting for? Don't you like showing off? The pastor's giving you a chance to shine. Get on up there already."

Blue Suede Shoes hesitated while WW had a quick mini-conference and looked over the choir score. They agreed on the tempo and the music style, leaving the rest up to Blue Suede Shoes. They'd just follow his lead.

"Come on, young men and ladies," the pastor encouraged them. "Come on up."

Blue Suede Shoes slouched over to the band and had a little discussion with them, sharing the piano stool with the pianist once more. The rest of WW joined different sections of the choir and Pig Head indicated to Blue Suede Shoes they were ready.

"One, two, three, four!" Blue Suede Shoes shouted and banged out a jazzy intro. It was the same song as before, but faster, syncopated and more soul stirring.

The music was a little messy, but nobody minded. It was an impromptu collaboration after all and no one had practised the song in this style before. At the sound of the music, Lemming Three ran in followed by a crowd of children, each coated with glitter and coloured paper. They wore funny colourful crowns on their heads. With the return of overly excited children, the entire church was swept up onto their feet. This time, not a single person remained in their seats.

WW came down from the choir stand, helping the children and Lemming Three decorate every head they could find with glittery colourful crowns that the children had made an excess of in Sunday School. The choir weren't left behind either. With the old Sunday School teacher's permission, they joined in the romping dance around the church sanctuary such that the vibrations of everyone's feet caused the pulpit to wobble as if there was an earthquake.

They didn't end with one song but three. Everyone was out of breath at the end when the music wound down to roaring applause.

"Tea," puffed the pastor into the microphone, while the congregation collected their things. "Tea - and - coffee... Out back... Feel free - to - join in. Stay for... lunch. Thank you all... Thank you, God, for fun and food, in Jesus' wonderful Name, amen."

Then Blue Suede Shoes grinned around at the band and WW, starting up a new song, so that people could dance out the sanctuary to the back hall. The pianist beside him couldn't keep up, instead watching and learning from him.

"You're all coming next week," the old Sunday School teacher told WW in a voice that brooked no argument during lunch. "You're all joining the music team and you," she pointed at Lemming Three, "are joining the Kids' Church to help me out again as an assistant teacher. All of you, meet here every Thursday evening 7:30pm for song practice. We meet here two hours before service starts on a Sunday. You were all in the choir. You all know the drill."

"Yes, Teacher," WW chorused in a perfect chord, making those around who heard them laugh. Their old teacher laughed at their cheekiness as well.

"Between you and me," their old teacher said, "we'll whip the rest of the music team and choir back up into proper shape. I've missed you all so much. I'm so glad you're back. Now hurry up and sit down. Tell me what you've been doing with your lives these few years. What are you all up to?"

At some stage, the pastor and many of the other church people had gathered around to listen to WW's stories. WW had gotten engrossed in their vivid style of integrated storytelling where they talked at the same time for emphasis or over the top of each other such that the next time they looked at Lemming Three, he was drowning under a crowd of children again. Other kids had sat down on or around them and the rest of the hall was relatively quiet, while unknown people continuously filled WW's plates until they were full to bursting.

By the end of lunch, the unemployed WW members had been booked in for interviews at full time job positions. Tigress already had a full time job, so she hadn't needed one. The old teacher had written down the phone number for Lemming Three's parents in order to discuss with them a sponsorship for him to study education to become a teacher after he finished his hated engineering degree that he had already failed three years in a row. An actual civil engineer had offered to tutor Lemming Three past his final exams, if he would baby sit his kids for him twice a week.

Aunty Lynn had been reprimanded by a man who turned out to be a music professor for preventing Blue Suede Shoes from following his dreams and had decided to take the boy under his wing. Blue Suede Shoes was told to apply for his course at the university that very night. Aunty Lynn listened with dazed amazement, while Blue Suede Shoes got so excited, he accidentally threw his plate of food in the professor's face to hug the surprised man.

Aunty Lynn patted the man on the shoulder and helped him clean up, after making Blue Suede Shoes clean up the mess on the floor.

"Have I just bitten off more than I can chew?" the professor asked with trepid concern.

"Definitely," Tigress told him.

"You have no idea," Pig Head shook his head in sympathy.

"You can't take your words back!" Blue Suede Shoes yelled in fear from where he was kneeling on the floor to clean. "I'll be good! Promise!"

"If he doesn't listen or causes you trouble," Aunty Lynn said, "you can bribe him with snacks and music or threaten to confiscate his phone or lock all the music instruments up away from him. Or call me and I'll tell you about the story of when he was young and wore..."

"Mu-um!" Blue Suede Shoes cried.

At the end of the day, WW sat in their lounge staring at the ceiling in collective silence. It had been a strangely fun, tiring and fruitful day. Had God been waiting for them to go back to church all this time? If they had known so many good things had been waiting for them at church on Sundays earlier, they'd have started going back to church long ago. It had been such a surprise that their old teacher had trusted them enough to let them run rampant during the service - and that the pastor had allowed it.

Next week, WW said, next week, they were definitely going again. Lemming Three couldn't wait to play with the kids again. Tigress was planning to learn some new recipes from some of the elderly. Pig Face wanted to practice his rusting conducting skills that he hadn't used since high school. Lemming Four wanted to catch up with some of their old friends again. Blue Suede Shoes couldn't wait to start learning music under that old professor. He was going into the music university tomorrow and could barely keep still. He leant back and...

The door banged open. Aunty Lynn pulled Blue Suede Shoes back out the door by the ear before he could put his muddy shoes up on the coffee table. How had she known that was what he was going to do? Had she been waiting? Hiding around the corner and stalking him?

Blue Suede Shoes shivered and complained his way out the door into the car.

WW sat back into their original positions and put their socked feet up onto the coffee table with happy sighs.