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Tabitha Lester gathered her bible and her purse and tote bag as she prepared to leave the Sunday school classroom, letting a sigh of frustration erupt from her lips as the last of the ladies filtered out of the door.
Attendance in the Sunday school class she taught every week had been light lately. She figured they were all probably home being lazy, or sleeping off their hangovers…or attending someone else’s class. But no, she was willing to bet, those same faces would be absent in the pews during the church service as well. She thought it was a disturbing trend that so many were falling away.
“Tabitha?” a timid voice said from behind her.
She turned, accidentally losing a grip on her tote bag handle, and growling as the contents fell to the floor. She curled her lip, barely holding back a curse, and said, “What, Ann?”
Ann had been one of her students for a while, a woman in her thirties with two young children who regularly terrorized the church Sunday school volunteers, judging from what she’d heard.
“Tabitha, I wanted to let you know about…a change that’s coming.” She looked ready to bolt but she still knelt down and helped Tabitha gather up all the flyers and posters Tabitha had recently had printed for Keep Divine Pure. Irritation filled her when she saw the box of business cards had split open, too.
Ann picked one up and peered at it. “Keep Divine Pure,” she read out loud. “Say no to polyamory.”
Tabitha snatched the card away from Ann when she held it out to her and looked at Tabitha with sympathy in her eyes. “Anyway…”
“What is it, Ann? I have to get to the church foyer. I’m scheduled to be a greeter this morning.”
Ann’s eyebrows shot up at that announcement and she bit her lip, her eyes darting around before she finally rose to her feet as Tabitha did. “The pastor’s wife has contacted me about starting a new Sunday school class.”
More competition! If they kept adding new classes, she’d lose all of her students, which were already too few in number. “Well, I hope that works out well for you. What will you be teaching?” In Tabitha’s opinion, Ann was too timid to teach anything besides her kids how to be hooligans.
“I’m starting a study of the Book of Daniel next Sunday. Um…you should come…maybe?”
Tabitha frowned and then shook her head. “I can’t. I have to teach.”
Ann smiled weakly as she backed away toward the door. “Well, I just wanted to let you know. It’s a ladies class, like this one, and—”
“You’re stealing all of my students, aren’t you?”
Ann had the audacity to roll her eyes as she said, “Don’t look at it that way, Tabitha. You’ll always be welcome.”
“And where will your class be?” Tabitha asked, hands on her hips.
Ann chuckled weakly as she stood in the doorway. “I’m…not really sure. Anyway, they asked me to let you know, and suggested that I invite you to join the new class.”
With all the kindness she could muster, Tabitha said, “No, thank you. I plan to continue on with teaching my class.”
Ann grimaced at that news. “Okay then. Talk to you later! Have fun greeting everyone this morning.”
Tabitha shook all over. They’d been dividing and subdividing the women’s class she and Elizabeth Owen had taught for years until there was practically no members left. She still missed Elizabeth. Sure, she’d made some errors in judgment, but she’d been a great teacher, as vehement in her defense of the truths they taught as Tabitha was.
Tabitha wished there were more loyal friends around her like Elizabeth. Beverly Dumphrey on the school board had proved she couldn’t be trusted or relied on. She’d fallen victim to her sympathies toward that Maizy Owen. If she’d kept her trap shut and stuck to the plan, that’d be one less poly-pervert group in the area.
“Did she not understand I was trying to save her?” Tabitha muttered, ignoring a church member as they stared at her when she walked past. She knew what she was talking about and no one seemed to be listening to her “cries in the desert,” as it were.
Speaking of Owens, that Roberta Owen had been a turncoat, too! Calling her up and yelling at her for showing around that picture of Maizy with her three men right after they all three asked her to marry them. It was unholy! Then Roberta had the gall to get mad at her for using that picture against her sister.
