Visit #9: Guests
Another bright and sunny morning found deVan hauling open the unlocked back door to the Catholic church he regularly visited. Another door took him to the churchy part of the church where along the walls were the 14 Stations of the Cross, a kind of picture book of his good friend’s final journey, to a terrible death and quiet burial.
After circumnavigating the 14 Stations, deVan took his usual U-turn and approached the 12th, the one with his friend looking down from a cross he was nailed to. “Hello, Jesus.” “Hello, deVan.” Jesus’s voice was clear and distinct, although in the picture nothing moved. “What’s new?”
“Everything,” deVan said.
Jesus chuckled a bit. “I hear a story coming.”
“Oh, yes,” deVan agreed. “I’m not even sure where to begin.”
“I’m in no hurry.”
“Okay, listen to this. I went to our meeting at the Rainbow Cellar.” The Rainbow Cellar was just that, the cellar of the nearby Episcopal church, the place that had been redecorated to accommodate the weekly meetings of any LGBTQ kids who wanted to attend. The Assistant Pastor, Reverend Marjorie, ran things there.
“You are going every week now.”
“Yeah. I like meeting up with other queer kids. We get each other, you know? Or maybe you don’t know.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“You were one of a kind, right? I mean, there you were, part of Tri-OON, and then you transition to a boy.” Jesus had informed deVan that, a bit like deVan who was transgender, Jesus too transitioned from being one of the three persons in the Triune God to being a human boy. “No one else ever pulled that off. So, no one could start a Triune Rainbow Cellar where kids like you could get together.”
Jesus sighed. “It definitely had its advantages and disadvantages. Anyway, you were saying you like meeting with other queer kids.”
“Sure. I mean, they can be as annoying as anyone…”
“Yourself included.”
“Uh-uh,” deVan said, “I don’t annoy you. You can’t wait till I show up. When I go around the Stations, I can tell you’re over here saying to yourself, ‘I wish he’d hurry up; I’m so excited to see deVan. Oh, please, hurry up, deVan!’”
“Whew!” Jesus said. “Talk about annoying!”
“Yeah, that even annoyed me a little. Maybe I should get back to the story.”
“Maybe.”
“Right. So the meeting starts like normal. All us regulars are in a circle and ready to go. Reverend Marjorie starts off. She has a question we all have to answer as we go around the room for the first time. She says, ‘As we go around, each of you answer this question: why did you decide to come here today?’”
“Good question,” Jesus said. “Makes you think about what pushed you to go on this particular day.”
“Except, guess who answered first.”
“You?”
“Bad guess. The voice came from the bottom of the stairs, the stairs to the Cellar. She had just that second arrived. She said, ‘I came to listen.’”
“Was it…”
“Aubrielle. It was Aubrielle!” Aubrielle was deVan’s extra smart, extra Christian non-friend who once socked a bully in the mouth for bothering deVan.
Jesus was clearly surprised. “She just decided to go to the Rainbow Cellar?”
“Yep. She said she came to listen and then she sat beside me.”
“Good thing there was an empty chair beside you.”
“Are you kidding? She went to the wall and grabbed a chair, unfolded it, and brought it to the circle and just squeezed in. Then she said, ‘I’m Aubrielle.’”
“What happened then?”
“Then Reverend Marjorie said, ‘Welcome, Aubrielle. I hope you have some good things to listen to.’ Reverend Marjorie always says the right thing. You could learn a lot from her.”
“Annoying,” Jesus said. “Don’t forget, deVan, the things I said made it to the Bible.”
“Oh, a little sensitive there, Jesus old buddy. Don’t worry, Reverend Marjorie always says you are tops. She just phrases things a bit better than you.”
“So, shall we go on?” Jesus asked. “What did Aubrielle do then?”
“Nothing,” deVan said. “The stairs to the Rainbow Cellar started squeaking again.”
“Someone else was coming?”
“Oh, yeah. It was — ready for this? — Ma’am!”
“Ma’am? Oh, right.” Ma’am was what deVan called the sacristan, the thin, six foot tall woman who stalked deVan in the Catholic Church and then revealed that she was the sacristan of the Episcopal church. She told deVan she was upset about the Rainbow Cellar because she thought it was bringing sin into the church. Then she found out deVan was trans.
“I said, ‘Hello, ma’am.’ She didn’t even look at me. Reverend Marjorie told her to take a seat. Jeremiah Font, remember him? He jumped up and grabbed a chair and set it beside him. Ma’am sat right on the edge of the chair, so she could be as uncomfortable as possible.”
“What did ma’am have to say?”
“She was nervous. She started by saying she prayed and prayed for guidance. Then, off she went.”
“Off where?”
“She starts by saying she came to offer us salvation.”
“Salvation?” Jesus said. “She has salvation?”
“No. You do. She said we must turn to you and be saved.”
“I hear a ‘but’ coming.”
“Oh, yeah, a big big ‘but.’ She says to turn to you we must turn away from sin.”
“Sin.”
“Yes. Then her voice got real high pitched. She said ‘homosexual’ a lot. I think it was her shorthand for LGBTQ. I could have told her queer was fine. I think you might say she was a tad judgy.”
“Possibly, yes.”
deVan took a deep breath. “Then came the scary part. Ma’am looked right at me, even pointed at me, and told me off. She said I tricked her, that I won her trust and then betrayed her. She said I was — check this out — steeped in sin, you know, like a tea bag.”
“What did you say to that?”
“Ha!” deVan said. “I didn’t get a chance to say anything.”
“Why not?”
“Because Aubrielle decided right then to stop listening and start talking.”
“What did she say?”
“She was irate. That’s what she said after, that she was irate. She told ma’am that I’ve never betrayed anyone in my whole life. She said I’m not a liar, I’m a truth teller. And she said if I’m steeped in sin, it’s only because we’re all steeped in sin.”
“She said that?”
“Yep. We’re all a bunch of hot wet tea bags!”
“Yes, Jesus responded. I once said that I have come not to call the righteous but sinners to think anew.”
“OK, well, Reverend Marjorie could help you with the wording there, but I get your point.”
Jesus likely shook his head at this. “Anyway, what you’re saying is, things got a little tense.”
“Yes. Aubrielle and ma’am went back and forth. Ma’am said we were on the path to hell, especially me. Aubrielle said the only path I was on was the path to kindness, that I never said a bad word about anyone. Kind of made me feel bad about saying Henry’s zits were ugly.” Henry was the bully Aubrielle punched.
“That was just descriptive.”
“Good point. So, eventually ma’am gets all frustrated. She stands up and yells, ‘You have been warned! You’ve all been warned!’ Then she stomps up the stairs.”
“Goodness. What happened then?”
“It was totally silent for a while. Then Reverend Marjorie said, ‘That was an interesting exit interview.’ Then she thanked Aubrielle for speaking up. Aubrielle just nodded. She was crying pretty hard.”
“Then what?”
“Then we continued around the room telling each other why we came here. Alana, the one who told me I needed a haircut, remember?”
“I do.”
“Alana said she came to learn how to be brave. Then she turned to Aubrielle and said that now she knew how, that Aubrielle taught her. Alana said she hoped Aubrielle would come back to our Rainbow Cellar meeting again next week. Aubrielle just nodded.”
“Do you think Aubrielle was brave, deVan?”
“Yes, but that’s something I’ve always known about her. Some people are just naturally brave, and she’s one. Also, she lives in love even when she doesn’t realize it.”
“I know what you mean.”
“After the meeting she came up to me. Her voice was shaky from all the yelling and crying. I asked her why she did what she did. That’s when she said she was irate. She said nobody gets to talk about me that way. I felt bad, actually.”
“Bad?” Jesus asked. “Why did you feel bad?”
“Aubrielle is always standing up for me. I wish I could do something for her.”
“DeVan,” Jesus said in a quiet voice.
“Yes, Jesus?”
“Believe me when I tell you, you have given Aubrielle more than you will ever know.”
