CHAPTER 10: I WATCH YOU; YOU WATCH ME
CHAPTER 10: I WATCH YOU; YOU WATCH ME
I enjoy watching people. It all started when I was a child attending church. “Emily, the body of Christ,” was what the priest always repeated, getting my name wrong while giving me communion. I walked the perimeter of the pews positioned in the center of the church, on the outer aisle, past the wine distributor, past the choir, and back to my seat.
When I knelt for prayer after communion, I watched the floor of the aisle I had just walked to observe the people passing by. But I only looked at their shoes because I played this game: I noticed the shoes of the passersby and tried to guess what kind of outfit they were wearing, how they fashioned their hair, and any other prominent aspect of their style. Additionally, I pretended to know what they were thinking.
When they finally passed in front of me, the game ended. I would look up and see if my imagination was correct.
My parents wouldn’t have been pleased if they had known what I was doing. It was a miracle that they managed to get me out of bed and into the car to go to church in the first place. I was a very resistant participant in the notion of worship.
At the end of the mass, the nuns often distributed UNICEF boxes to the parishioners so they could donate something to help children in some poor region of the world. The children were almost always in some sort of slum scene, with ragged clothes and dirty faces, disheveled hair. The strangest thing for me was that once in a while, there was an Asian child who looked like me. I wondered if people looked at me and felt sorry for me, too.
VOCABULARY
priest /prēst/ an ordained minister of the Catholic, Orthodox, or Anglican Church having the authority to perform certain rites and administer certain sacraments.
communion /kəˈmyo͞onyən/ the service of Christian worship at which bread and wine are consecrated and shared.
perimeter /pəˈrimədər/ the outermost parts or boundary of an area or object.
pews /pyo͞o/ a long bench with a back, placed in rows in the main part of some churches to seat the congregation.
aisle /īl/ a passage between rows of seats in a building such as a church or theater, an airplane, or a train.
distributor /dəˈstribyədər/ one who distributes supplies.
knelt /nēl/ be in or assume a position in which the body is supported by a knee or the knees, as when praying or showing submission.
passersby /ˌpasərˈbī/ a person who happens to be going past something, especially on foot.
prominent /ˈprämən(ə)nt/ very noticeable, important.
aspect /ˈaˌspek(t)/ a particular part or feature of something.
resistant /rəˈzist(ə)nt/ offering resistance to something or someone.
notion /ˈnōSH(ə)n/ a conception of or belief about something.
mass /mas/ the central act of worship of the Roman Catholic Church, which culminates in celebration of the sacrament of the Eucharist.
nuns /nən/ a member of a religious community of women, especially a cloistered one, living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
distributed /dəˈstribyo͞odəd/ shared or spread out.
ragged /ˈraɡəd/ (of cloth or clothes) old and torn.
disheveled /dəˈSHevəld/ (of a person's hair, clothes, or appearance) untidy; disordered.