The Strange Little Church

MORNING OF OCTOBER 13, 2010

I heard that an old friend from high school and college had become a priest. Eric and I drove out to the tiny little church he was supposedly pastoring to say hi. We parked outside the church until the morning service was over, and only then walked inside to find our friend.

An older priest greeted us. I was wearing a "Back to the Future" T-shirt, and the priest chastised me. He proclaimed that the movie had "led many youth astray".

Another random man in the church saw my shirt and began trying to sell me a backpack full of random items. He was trying to convince me that the items would make "great accessories for your shirt". He was making no sense.

Then he tried to sell me an old, worn-out Bible that had a picture of a bear on the cover, and was inscribed with the name "Caybo" or "Cabai" or something like that (I can't clearly remember it anymore).

We next found ourselves in a little house next to the church where people were serving lunch. I overheard someone say that author Neil Gaiman enjoyed "farming yogurt cultures" in his spare time.

I never did see my old friend who had supposedly become a priest.