Chapter 9
As if fulfilling The Board of the A.N.G.E.R. Church's wishes, the congregation did "disperse and go elsewhere"; Some of the happier members to the Community Fair.
Others, not so happy, having to be separated physically, before spilling onto the street.
Samuel became instantly concerned, when he saw two police officers standing at the front gate.
He came over to apologise.
"Oh, we're just looking for a cup of tea." Sergeant Lau explained, looking around.
Phew..
Samuel pointed to the area where the fair was taking place.
As they were about to move on, a 'Teacup Chihuahua', the much loved dog belonging to Mr. and Mrs.Hua (- from the nearby "Hua's Yum Cha" restaurant-), lept from Mrs.Hua's arms and ran straight onto the road.
Mrs.Hua's hands were otherwise full, with food parcels being brought to the fair.
Mrs.Hua shrieked in fear, as their little dog ran towards the busy traffic, causing Guy Pride to take a fall in the middle of the road, as he too was crossing the road at the same time.
Amazingly, all traffic stopped, to save the little dog from harm.
Constable Longarm instinctively stepped out onto the road, slightly kneeling down to scoop up the dog as it made its way to the other side.
There was instant applause.
People at the fair, people from within their cars, and even members of the congregation who were distracted from arguing with each other, joined together in appreciation of the officer's 'courageous' act.
Mrs.Hua had tears in her eyes
"Thank Heavens for officer's Longarm, and ah, Lau." she cried with joy.
Everyone agreed.
Some wanted to take photos with the officers and the dog, as some type of souvenir of the occasion.
Poor Guy Pride, trying to remove himself from within the line of traffic, leaning on cars to scoop himself off the road.
A couple of irate drivers turned from being happy to see the rescued dog, to becoming short tempered with the man now staggering across the road, and thus, slowing their day down.
Nobody appeared to have actually noticed him previously lying on the road momentarily, except for one volunteer from the fair.
Florence, who had had a stroke only six months earlier, did her best to make her way onto the road, and with her stronger arm, aided Guy to the other side of the road and out of harm's way.
In quite some pain, he leant against the brick fence, with the assistance of Florence.
At this time, a woman was passing by in the street, and guarded her young children away from the couple propping each other up.
"Oh, how tragic," the mother lamented, "Drunk at this time of the day."
Waving her walking stick, frantically trying to get someone's attention, Florence was eventually seen by Samuel, who began walking towards her, as she laboured herself to rush to him.
"Guy Pride.." Florence struggled to talk.
Pastor Warren then noticed her anxious state, and rushed to assist.
"What happened?" he asked her.
Florence pointed her walking stick towards the street, and said with great difficulty,
"Guy Pride..
Before..
A fall!"
Both Pastor Warren and Samuel hurried to be of assistance to Guy, who was still leaning on the fence, before an ambulance was to arrive.
Florence stayed nearby, trying to offer Guy some comfort, but Guy himself was more burdened by the situation, than the pain of falling itself.
"Knocked over by a chihuahua," he groaned, staring blankly into space, "What next."
Then, looking down at the pavement, with a grimace, conceded,
"I was actually coming over to...see if I could help!"
Florence began examining his wounds, which made him feel more uncomfortable, but he couldn't argue,so he just awkwardly moved himself on the fence and grimaced.
"I've never felt part of this community," he continued, "and something today just made me.. curious.."
Momentary thoughtful silence, before,
"By the way, what's up with this lady?!"
Guy felt like his 'personal space' had been violated.
"Oh, Florence is from our church," Pastor Warren explained, "She was a nurse before she had the stroke."
"She'd had a stroke," Guy uttered, before looking to Florence with unusual humility, "And yet, she bent down to help a stranger like that."
"A neighbour." Florence gently corrected him.
Guy smiled, now a little embarrassed.
"A neighbour?" he asked Florence, confused, "Who is my neighbour?"
Florence smiled.
"I'll have to get her to expound the meaning of this later," Pastor Warren interrupted, "Your ride is here."
"An ambulance," Guy said in disbelief, "The story is more painful than the bruising."
After Guy went with the ambulance and the commotion had died down from the dog rescuing incident, the crowds returned to the fair.
Turning his attention to the happy gathering of neighbours engaged in more polite conversations than earlier in the day, children playing and families interacting with each other on the lawn like he'd never seen before, he noticed Dean Pastor Dean and Deanne, making their way through the crowd to meet him.
Not knowing that they were actually old friends, Samuel began to introduce them to Pastor Warren.
Pastor Warren stepped forward and embraced the couple.
"DPDP, and DP!" Pastor Warren exclaimed.
"We're old friends, Samuel, from way back." 'DPDP' explained.
The old friends caught up with each other, as Samuel looked around with marvel at the crowd gathered.
"Hey Samuel.." DPDP began to say something, before Samuel interrupted, now in a daze.
"I am overwhelmed, honestly. I couldn't have done this without everyone's help."
"No you couldn't have." DPDP surprised Samuel with a firm, yet friendly response.
"And, one day," he motioned his hand towards his old pastor friends, "We'll need your help.
And so will they, and so will they."
DPDP looked over to the busy people, working at the fair.
"So," Samuel pondered quietly, "The eye cannot say to the hand,
'I don't need you."
"And," Deanne looked to Samuel, "the head cannot say to the foot,
'I don't need you."
Nodding in agreement, DPDP smiled, "And there should be no division in the body.
The members should have the same care for one another."
"Yes," Samuel considered, first piously, "As it says in the Bible..,"
And then regretfully, "Ah, somewhere."
"Really, Samuel. Somewhere?!" DPDP, snapping into his Bible college Dean voice, insisted.
"Yes it does, Samuel." Deanne defended Samuel, " We should have equal concern for each other."
DPDP relented, nodding in agreement.
"And Samuel," a voice from behind him spoke up, "I'm sorry for the division we've caused, when we should have had the same care for one another."
It was Reverend Labour.
Samuel shrugged and gave a restrained smile.
"True, not the introduction I thought I'd thought I'd have to a church after leaving college, but, you know."
"We never stop learning, Samuel," Reverend Labour reflected, "and nor should we.
We should always be..teachable."
With that, the pair shook hands.
Chapter 10
Soon after, people's attention was drawn to a makeshift stage in front of the old community centre.
An older man, evidently familiar to most, but not to Samuel, stepped up on the stage, put his reading glasses on, and read from a page in front of him,
"And now, for the first time in over thirty years, would you please welcome..
The Community Centre Dance Troupe."
There was a polite applause from some.
A lukewarm reception.
They drew attention to themselves, the 'Troupe', but, well..
Who?!
"One of Dad's ideas." Pastor Warren explained to all within earshot, "Actually, Mum and Dad.
A 1980's thing.
They wanted to put something together that, ah, 'Spoke to the youth on the street', as they put it."
"And, did it?" Deanne asked.
"Ah, no." he conceded, "As a young person myself, at the time, I didn't know what to make of it.
But, that's nice. They're still friends after all these years."
"Of course."
"Yes."
"No, that's great."
Everyone around politely responded.
And, there they were.
The Community Centre Dance Troupe, resplendent in their old, now ill-fitting tracksuits, that the same six person dance troupe wore back in the '80's and '90's.
Well, as they began their "rap era, life like robot interpretive dance routine", a few young people nearby began to snigger, and others were politely trying to control their laughter.
Before long, a couple of passers by in the street began to heckle the dance troupe.
Samuel at first, although silently, agreed with some of the sentiment-
"Who would relate to this..whatever it is, let alone the 'youth on the street', whoever they were."
But his attitude changed, when he saw a small group of people walk off the street, and stand close by, deliberately ridiculing the dance troupe.
Still, the troupe...trouped on.
"I don't understand it, myself," Samuel said to his friends, "but they mean well, and I can't stand by and watch this go on."
As he strode forward, Samuel concluded,
"Actually, I find this a fitting ending to my time here."
With this bold statement, Samuel confidently walked to the front of the stage, and politely (though clumsily) tried to copy the dance moves he saw taking place on the stage.
Two young men standing nearby, once hecklers, studied Samuel's poor interpretation of "Interpretive Dance", and agreed to try it themselves.
Then more people turned from what they were doing at the fair, and in honour of the people, honouring the dance troupe, themselves began to dance similarly.
This prompted the MC to put his reading glasses back on, to find that volume dial, and turn up the music as loud as possible on the old cassette player that the troupe were dancing to.
This prompted some random people in the street to stop what they were doing, move the remaining hecklers out of the way, to give them some space to listen to the music, and join in dancing themselves.
Now, this prompted the slow moving traffic in the street to stop, again, altogether.
People left their vehicles in the middle of the street, to observe the proceedings, before they were overcome with feeling the need to join in, too.
It wasn't long before the whole street had become a..dance floor.
"Look." Reverend Labour directed Pastor Warren to the commotion on the street.
"After forty odd years," Pastor Warren said with some emotion, "They're finally appealing to the youth on the street.
Whatever that means.
That's just wonderful."
By this time, the police officers who were meant to be guiding traffic, were following the dance routine also.
People who were in nearby shops came out to see what all the fuss was about, before they too, began to join in, copying what they saw.
Which prompted people living in the local area, the "Spacious new apartments", to come out to their small balconies to talk with their neighbours, who even though they lived so close to each other, were not in the habit of communicating with each other normally.
Yet now, they too were dancing together.
Samuel was now taken up in the moment.
All the controversy, concerns and disappointments of his time at Saint Warren's were being shaken off, whilst 'chance' encounters, valuable lessons and encouraging words spoken over him during his time at Saint Warren's were being fused within his heart.
Why, subconsciously, he'd even dropped the words "The Misery of.." when referring to the place.
Because, the "Misery." had no relevance to him, anyway.