A Time to Leave

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You ever been in one of those church meetings where you just know you need to leave? When my little brother blessed his baby, he was on the 11:00 schedule so instead of having a luncheon afterward for the extended family, he decided to have an early breakfast. We all met at the park and shared muffins, donuts…you get the idea. Then we headed to the church en masse. 

It was a chilly spring day and the kids had all eaten in their church clothes and then chased around the park before we headed into the meeting. They were ornery, messy, and pumped full of sugar. My nephew received a beautiful blessing (what we could hear of it anyway). They have about 250 children under the age of 12 in their area. We were seated way back in the gym (why does that always happen to me?) and the kids were restless and tired. So we devised a brilliant beyond brilliant plan. We would leave the meeting right after the sacrament but not all together because we didn’t want to cause a ruckus. For some crazy reason we thought if we left a few at a time, no one would notice. 

I was the first one to get up with the baby and the diaper bag. Princess got up next and brought out Crafty and Prima Donna. A couple of minutes later, my sweetie headed out the other side door with Sport. Then Teach gathered up the already sleeping Scout and picked her way through the maze of empty chairs. There was only one problem. No one had mentioned any of this to the Dog Walker. 

I peeked back into the gym. He was just sitting there all by himself on a long empty row. He stared straight ahead, eyes intent on the speaker. I was definitely in a dilemma. I always want my kids to like church, but this was one time I was more than ready to go home. I waved my hand; I whispered his name. Nothing worked. Finally I slipped back in, sat down next to him, and put my hand on his knee. He jumped. Then he yawned and stretched and looked around. He turned to me with a puzzled expression. 

"Let’s go!" I whispered urgently. He glanced around again. "Why should we go?" he asked a little too loudly. I’m sure I blushed a pretty shade of pink. I took his hand and pulled him to his feet. "The meeting’s not over yet!" he said, but he followed me toward the door. Just to make sure we were noticed, I managed to trip over one of the empty chairs. The Dog Walker was very concerned. "Are you OK?" he asked. This time heads definitely turned. So much for a nice quiet exit.