Vivid Setting Story

     The church was big then. It isn't so big now, all these years later, but back when slides were mountains and kiddy pools were oceans, it felt big. 
     It was a Sunday morning and I was overwrought. Katelyn had been too much for me with her angry accusations and frowning face. I could no longer exist through the remaining hour in the black prison of Sunday school. All I wanted was my mommy, and feeling safe again. Slipping out when Miss Wanda's back was turned, I hurried quickly, stealthily out of sight, down the long, long, empty halls of the Church. They were eerily quiet, with all the strange void of a loud place that has suddenly been robbed of its occupants. Shapes and structures that had always seemed ordinary suddenly became ghostly as I made my way, alone, through the passageways. A lone man appeared around a corner, coffee in hand. Petrified, I crumpled into a puddle of timidity, cowering behind a table until he passed. 
     Safe again, I hurried up to the looming doors of Big Church, where a hundred thousand strange faces lingered, tall, solemn and old. The grown-ups were all sitting there listening to the faceless man on the stage who was too far away for me to see clearly. There was only one face that mattered to me. I pushed my way into the room, and the limp echo of the man's voice became a loud hearty tone. Where was she? I peered frantically about, feeling lost and alone in the vast world of the big people. 
     "Are you lost, sweet heart?" A man whispered, tapping my shoulder. Quaking, I shook my head violently and hurried on. Where was she? Where was she? 
      The sudden horrible thought came that maybe my mommy wasn't in the Church at all! But no sooner had I thought it than her familiar face was next to mine. For a few moments everything was perfect. 
     And then I got a big lecture and learned that mommys are only comforting when little girls are obedient.