Day 2: Churchagaw?

When we were kids, I remember thinkin' that our house was the most beautiful one I'd ever seen. Sammy an' my bedroom was the first one on the left when you went down the hallway, right next to baby Ruthie's little room. The sun would stream in through the windows on that side of the house, dappling through the leaves on our plum tree outside. Really it was just a plain one-story vinyl-sided deal in a nondescript cul-de-sac a couple miles from the rougher part of town. We didn't get much crime out our way, though; it was almost as if burglars and everyone else knew they'd get too little loot for it to be worth the trouble.

In the summers we were pretty much left to our own devices - Papa was either down at the shipyard or down at Jack's drinkin', and Mama spent a lot of time in her room. So Sammy an' I would make up games together, y'know, shoot squirrels in the back yard, and run an' steal people's things from their yards, whatever we could find. When I think about it now, a lot of our games had to do with collecting things, specifically stolen things, an' then either hidin' 'em again like treasures or breakin' 'em down so no one could find out what we'd done.

One summer we got to spend a whole month with Gramma an' Grampap Rodgers, out in the mountains. We were so excited we couldn't sleep, and we stayed up late into the night whispering about how we were gonna take out Grampap's huntin' dogs, and explore the entire woods, and build a fort that no one could find that we could keep all our treasures in. We talked a lot about that fort, and the nonsense logistics of how to keep it perfectly hidden from everyone but ourselves. The Fort filled our thoughts all the way up to the driveway of the old brick church that Grampap was the pastor of. Papa pulled up slowly, and Grampap was there waitin' for us outside the sign that read Pentecostal Church of God.

Sayin' that name again reminds me of something that, now, seems to shed a little light on how things turned out. It took me all summer to find out that the Churchagaw wasn't real, an' I'd made him up out of Grampap saying 'Church 'a' Gawd' in his thick accent. When Grampap first told us he was in charge of the Churchagaw, I imagined it as a great big black bird holed up in the secret passage behind the pulpit. Grampap was the Churchagaw's slave, and he would bring it the big silver bowls from the church, full of the offering papers and leftover bits of bread and juice to eat. I stopped takin' communion when I found out about the Churchagaw, because I didn't want 'im to be too hungry. While I figured most people were content to sing their hymns to the Churchagaw, I knew my little sacrifice would really make his Sunday.

So I quick built up an obsession with the Churchagaw, and multiplied it to the excitement Sammy 'an I had already built up for the Fort. An' of course Sammy had no idea what I was talking about. That first night we were there, we'd already planned on sneakin' out to explore the woods, but I wanted to go across the parsonage yard to the church, to see if we could catch a glimpse of the 'Gaw himself.

...

"What are you talkin' about, Eva?" Sammy whispered loudly, with brotherly disgust in his voice.

"Well, but... the Churchagaw! Y'know, what Grampap said at dinner!" We were both tryin' to keep our voices low, so Gramma and Grampap wouldn't hear us chatterin'. They might'a both been deaf by then anyway, but whisperin' was necessary for a thrillin' adventure.

"Yeah, the Church, I know. But there's nothin' to see over there, Eva, just books an' an empty church is all!" Sammy's face was too hard to see in the dark, but I can guess he was confused by the change 'a plan, after all the time we'd spent decidin' on how the Fort's trap door was gonna work. Even so...

"But, Sammy, you're not hearin' me right! The Chur--"

"Just shut up about that, now! We already said we were gonna go sneak into the woods! We can go see the Church on Sunday with Gramma an' Grampap." I'd made him mad.

"Ok, ok, Sammy," I gave over, reluctantly. "But let's be real careful they don't hear us - I just don't wanna go home before we get to see the Churchagaw."

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Word count: 779

I didn't get nearly as far as I wanted to tonight. The fact sheet really robbed me of my energies, but I think it was a necessary task for being able to keep up momentum in the long run. I'm down some 500 words, but hopefully I'll be able to work that out over the next few days.