Once they arrived to their job they began to catch up on the weekend, they did this on every Monday; it was like the week warm-up ritual. “Yeah, Kenya said you were pimped out in church yesterday,” Ronald said to spark a conversation in hopes to slaughter time. Besides Hall was far from a good dresser, yet back in the day he dressed better before his wife passed away. Hall enjoyed to be joked with in such a manner; he blushed then responded, “Aw man, I won’t wearing nothing spectacular, and I doubt my goddaughter would use that expression.” Hall thought about the little innocent girl he watched blossom into a young beautiful woman. It seemed like yesterday she was riding his back begging not to be put down; the sweet memory made him desire to go back in time. Her father was Hall’s best friend since the seventies, so he has been in Kenya’s life longer than she can remember.

“A, speaking of church I missed you,” Hall sarcastically joked. A smirk from Ronald was all Hall got; Ronald went to church occasionally but refused to attend regularly. Church to him was not thought of as the house of the Lord but instead the house of gossip and judgmental mindsets. The attribute of the entity that really made him look bad was that the church his wife attended her father was the senior pastor. It wasn’t that Ronald denied the word; it was just all of the additives that came with it that he would rather do without. Sometimes he wished he could attend a bigger church where the people had less knowledge of his past, but he knew Kenya would have a huge problem with that. To be honest Ronald was spiritually hungry but was frightened to eat the wrong fruit.

In his mind he felt that one day the perfect bridge would be built from God to him but as of today that bridge was not visible. “Hall if you preached I’ll come more often I think I could relate better to your sermons. Being that I get one, more than five days a week,” Ronald joked after dazing. His statement was partially a joke because majority of it was true. Hall never intentionally preached to him, but he taught Ronald different values of life indirectly without compelling to credit. “Well you know how Pastor Jones is,” Hall would never say anything negative towards his long time friend, but he couldn’t help thinking it.

Ronald clenched his teeth; the thought of Kenya’s father sometimes made him want to drive a hole through the wall with his fist. To explain this feeling, one would have to go back five years to the day of their first encounter:

Kenya looks deep in the mirror making sure her face is exactly as she had always hoped it would be on prom night. “Girl how long can you look at yourself,” Kenya’s mother asked with a frustrated smile. “Mom-ma I can’t get my eyes the way I want them it don’t look right no matter what I do,” Kenya whined to her mother for help. Her mother burst out laughing, but she immediately stop after receiving a childish pout from her only daughter. “Okay, you big baby turn around,” Kenya’s mother said nonchalantly knowing she was just as excited as Kenya, maybe even more. Kenya poked out her face and allowed her mother to work her magic. Suddenly the doorbell rang and havoc followed.

“Mom, I ain’t ready yet,” Kenya said in a whining voice. “Honey can you answer the door for Kenya’s date and direct him to the living room. Tell him Kenya is almost ready,” Kenya’s mother said then she turned and looked at Kenya and asked, “Was that hard?”

The Pastor got up from his comfortable Lazy Boy and walked to the door, the whole time he was wondering what kind of person was on the other side. After the door was open his mind fell closed; in his sight was a young man in a tuxedo wearing cornrows. “How are you doing today sir? I’m Kenya’s date for the prom,” the young man said with a shaky voice. “No need to be nervous son. Come in and have a seat in the living room. My good friend Hall told me some good things about you but old Hall hasn’t got anything bad to say about anybody,” Pastor Jones said doubting his friend’s judgment.