Samantha Stone pushed back a stray bit of gray and black hair that had escaped her customary, stiffly sprayed coiffure. Sam liked everything under control. She never left her house without every dish done and the house in impeccable order, after all that was demanded of Christians in her opinion. She had heard screaming out in the sanctuary a short time ago, but waved it off, she was doing her important ministry work. She was molding the next generation of her church! These kids nowadays and their weird ideas about wedding services!! She had already talked with the Pastor about allowing any nonsense in THIS House of God! She would have to have another chat with him about propriety and proper respect for HER church! The more she thought about them shouting in her church, the angrier she became. She vowed to wait until the Pastor was alone and strongly remind him, his salary depended on her good graces!! Finally hearing no more noise, she assumed the wedding party had left. Gathering her manual and notebooks up, she started resolutely down the hallway. Entering the sanctuary she saw some people there, but they looked strange....rather dazed and confused.
"Druggies no doubt!!" She muttered to herself, lifting her chin primly. Coming out further, she saw a pile of clothing on the platform. Immediately she scanned around the sanctuary with alarm and saw other piles of clothing!
"WELL!!! WHAT manner of evil is THIS? That young lady has a lot of explaining to do!! People ripping off their clothing in a church like this!!! This is a DISGRACE!!! I'm calling the police!!" She screamed angrily at those still sitting in the church pews. Samantha Stone stared hatefully at the dazed people but they seemed to pay her no mind. Infuriated, she stomped down the aisle.
"We'll see about this!!!! NO ONE does MY CHURCH this way and gets by with it!!!" She screamed out, her face red and twisted into a hideous rage and her eyes squinting. Should looks be able to kill, she would have been able to slay a whole town at that moment! Her husband Hank would have to listen to this! Lately, he had been becoming far too soft and gentle with these people. He had been telling her that she was not looking at things with enough love in her heart! WELL NOW she would show him just WHO was right about things!!! Once outside, she dug into her bag and withdrew her cell phone. Punching keys so viciously she dislodged the faceplate. She waited impatiently for the connection.
"Get me my husband and be quick about it!!" She snapped into the phone. The girl on the other end of the line began to weep uncontrollably. "Pull yourself together girl and get my husband on this phone, NOW!" Sam thought she would have to get him dismiss this girl, she was not very efficient! "I....I.... I can't..... he.... he was giving me the list of constituents when... when... All that's left are his clothes! He looked up...like he heard something.... then he lit up like and just vanished!!! What happened to him??!! MRS. STONE?! TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!!" The girl screamed hysterically at her and Sam pulled back the phone and stared at it in disbelief....
"Has everyone decided to do drugs at the same time??!! Idiots!! I'm surrounded by IDIOTS!!" She snarled at the phone. The girls hysterical crying was still coming through the speaker when she punched the button to hang up. Sam punched in another number. Her brother Tad ran the local funeral home. Thankfully she heard his voice say, "hello".
"Tad! You won't believe what happened at the church! It's the most..."
"They're gone...." Tad's voice cut her off mid-sentence then broke and he dissolved into weeping.
"Why yes... how did you...? Who? Who's gone Tad??" Sam asked, suddenly afraid someone in the family had died.
"I was putting the embalming fluid in.........and the body just...disappeared! Right from under my fingertips....gone...poof... vanished... Margie, she was coming down the stairs. She stopped and looked up like she heard something... then...then she disappeared... right out of her clothes...Her favorite pearls are right there with her clothes...Sami....Sami..." Her brother began weeping again.
"TAD!!! Get a hold of yourself!! No one just disappears!"
"But they did Sam... they DID... I saw it... with my own eyes..."
"Well I didn't see any such nonsense!! Has everyone gone nuts?? Tad, you wait, Margie will be coming down stairs soon... why don't you lie down?? Perhaps you got too many fumes..."
"SAM!!! I SAW THEM DISAPPEAR!!! Don't you get it?? I was embalming one of them!! The needle was suddenly gushing embalming fluid all over the table because the vein it was in was suddenly...GONE!! The WHOLE BODY...JUST GONE!!!"
"TAD! Now calm down... just calm down... what in the world is going on?? HAS everyone gone insane??" The line went dead and Sam looked around the church yard... she saw some youth standing talking down the street. She went to find the landscaper she had hired. Samantha Stone stopped short at the sight of a shovel, a partially dug hole, a small bush sitting lopsided in the hole and a pile of clothes next to the hole and shovel. The wheelbarrow sat just behind... all that was missing was the gardener or more accurately, his body. For these were the clothes Sam had seen him in just an hour ago when she told him where to plant the bush. She lifted the shirt and recognized the stained area where he had obviously spilled something.
"WELL, they must have given the gardener some of their drugs too! We shall just see about this, I will RUIN his business for this! Those kids maybe they know something!! MAYBE THEY DID THIS!" Sam screeched out loud and began to stomp toward the unsuspecting group of teens.
