The Church without a Steeple

Dakotah Farmer was huddled in the dirty root cellar with her father, mother and two younger brothers. Her light brown hair, which she had just cleaned, already had flecks of dirt in it. She couldn’t believe this happened right after she had taken a shower. The wind outside the cellar was blowing hard and the local tornado sirens were sounding. It sounded like a fast moving train outside, only louder.

Dakotah covered he ears as the doors of the cellar rattled with the winds blowing fast and furious outside. She hoped that the tornado would not hit their house, she had so much stuff in her room that she had collected to prepare her for leaving her home and starting out on her own. She had already graduated from high school and turned eighteen just two days ago. It was time to say goodbye to her family, not that she doesn’t like her parents and brothers, she loves them; but it is time for her to move on with her life. The tornado outside confirmed her decision, she is going where there are no tornadoes.

They were all huddled there as a family for more than forty-five minutes. Finally the wind died down and the rattling stopped, as did the tornado sirens. Dakotah’s father slowly opened the cellar doors and peered out. He waited just a couple of seconds and then he climbed up the latter and out in the yard.

When Dakotah emerged, she was relieved to see the house still standing. Several trees had blown over and she could see the distant neighbors barn had been destroyed, but her family’s barn and house were in tact.

When she looked up into the sky, she noticed a bright green light that was quickly dissipating. She had never seen a green sky like that before. It was common for clouds to have a greenish look to them in severe weather, especially around tornadoes, but the green sky she saw now was different and much brighter. A few minutes later, the cloudy sky returned to normal, white and grey.

Dakotah help as the family worked together to remove tree limbs and branches that blocked their long gravel driveway and the smaller trails that led to the barn and other parts of the farm. Soon it was too dark to see well, and they all went inside to finish their now, cold dinner.

The next morning, Dakotah was awakened by someone pounding on their front door.

“You have to come and see it! You have to come and see it! The tornado brought a new church to town!”

It was the voice of their closest neighbor’s twelve year old son, Josh. He was her brother’s best friend, she liked him most of the time, but he could be annoying; right now he was being annoying.

Her mother invited Josh in and he went on about a new church that was brought in by the tornado. This all seemed pretty far fetched, even for Josh, but soon they were all in the pickup truck and on their way to town. Dakotah’s brown eyes widened as they took the last turn towards town. There on the small hill just on the other side of the small town, sat a church, completely intact and looking brand new. The only thing that Dakotah thought looked wrong, was that there was no steeple.

And she said so out loud, “I’ll be darned Josh, you weren’t lying, but there’s no steeple.”

“No all churches have steeples, responded her mother. “It is a mighty fine looking church.”

They drove through town and got as close as they could to the church. It looked like the rest of the town was already there. People were gawking at it and a few were walking up close to it. Dakotah was skeptical and stayed in the back of the pickup, but both of her brothers ran up to the church and peered into the slim windows that were on both sides of a large, wooden double-doors.

All of the sudden, the wooden double-doors opened, and out walked the best dressed man Dakotah had ever seen. His was dressed in a dark blue pin-striped, three-piece suit, vest and all, with shiney black shoes and black socks. Under the suit jacket he wore a white shirt with a dark red tie. He looked to be a little over six feet tall, to Dakotah, and his dark brown, curly hair was tightly trimmed and his handsome face was clean shaven.

Dakotah listened carefully as the well dressed man began to talk. He had a loud, booming voice, the kind that might be heard on the radio or at a rodeo. He claimed to be Johnathan Moses and that the storm had picked up his church and brought it to our town. He announced that he must have been brought here by a divine power.

After his brief speech he invited everyone to go inside the church and have a look around. Dakotah had no desire to walk into a church that had dropped out of the sky, but her brothers went in and after a little while, she saw her mother, coaxing her father to go in. After a few minutes, they went inside, along with most of the town. But Dakotah noticed that she was not the only one hesitant to go in. About two-thirds of the town went in, while the other third stayed and watched.

About thirty-five minutes passed before Dakotah saw her parents come back out of the strange church, and a few minutes later, her brothers came out as well. Some of those that had stayed outside wandered into the new church, after hearing the reports from those who had been inside; but Dakotah stayed in the back of her fathers, tan colored pickup truck.

As her family eventually climbed back into the truck and headed for home, Dakotah listened as the rest of her family talked about how miraculous it was and how beautiful the interior of the church had been. Her mother went on and on about the beautiful pews, spacious class rooms and even a fully functional kitchen with a large hall for gatherings. Her mother claimed to have never seen anything like it, not even in catalogs.

That evening, after all the chores were complete and the family sat around the table, talk of the church without a steeple began. Dakotah’s brothers repeatedly called it “cool” and her mother once again went on about the large hall and the amazing kitchen.

Then her father asked her, “How come you didn’t want to go in, Dakotah?”

She swallowed her bite of food, and then looked at both her parents. “Something is not right about it. I can’t say what it is, but it doesn’t feel right. I don’t ever want to go inside.”

Dakotah looked back down at her plate of food and took her next bite.

“And we will not force you to, sweetheart,” replied her mother.

Then one of her brothers started talking about how they could play baseball inside the church, it was so big, and the conversation turned away from Dakotah; she was so grateful.

The next several days passed as Dakotah continued to help on the farm as well as prepare for her upcoming departure. She was going off to a distance college, far away from home and tornadoes. She had realized at a young age, that going to a good college was her best chance of getting away from this small town. Therefore, she had always taken her schooling seriously and had graduated the top of her class. She had received a full-ride scholarship and she would be out of this little town and their new church before summer was over. She was counting the days.

Talk of the new church continued and when Sunday came most of the town went to the church without a steeple. There was already a small church in town that many of the normal church goers attended, but now even many of those believers had gone to the new church.

During the next week, Dakotah heard that the pastor of the old church had a talk with Johnathan Moses and the following Sunday, the pastor attended the new church. This really caused a stir in the town and next week, Dakotah saw both the pastor and Johnathan Moses, walking around together and inviting everyone to a special meeting scheduled for the upcoming Sunday.

When Dakotah returned home, after getting a few more things for college, all her family talked about was this upcoming “special” meeting. It was like there was nothing else going in town or even in the world, everyone needed to be at this meeting.

Saturday came and Dakotah spend most of the afternoon with her friends. It was her last Saturday, since she was leaving for the university next Friday. Most of her friends had grown up with her for her entire life and many tears where shed as they said goodbye on Saturday night. Her best friend, Maryjo, asked her if she would be at church tomorrow. Dakotah wanted to tell he “no”, but when she saw the look in her best friends eyes, she nodded her head, and replied, “yes”.

Dakotah’s mother was surprised when she was ready for church on Sunday morning. No one asked her what made her decide to go, they all just chattered about the special meeting with excitement in their voices.

They arrived at the church without a steeple and Dakotah was thrilled to see her friends again. They talked outside of the church for several minutes and soon people started going inside. As Dakotah turned to walk in, she suddenly stopped, she just couldn’t do it. She made an excuse that she was suddenly feeling sick, and her friends went inside without her. She gave her parents the same story and told them she would wait for them in the truck. He father gave her the keys, so she could run the air conditioner while she waited.

Dakotah sat in the driver’s seat of the pickup truck, listening to her favorite station, when suddenly the entire truck began to shake. She gripped tightly to the steering wheel but soon realized it wasn’t just the truck that was shaking. She quickly got out of the truck and looked around, all of the ground was shaking as if there was a great earth quake. She look towards the new church and she could not believe her eyes.

The church without a steeple was lifting off of the ground. Dakotah watch in shock as she saw that it was not a church at all, it was a spaceship and it was taking away her entire family, all of her friends and everyone she knew. In fact, Dakotah was the only person in town that was not inside the church. She watched in horror as the church flew away, it flew straight up into the sky and within minutes disappeared into space; leaving behind a trail of a bright green light, the same light she had seen the day of the tornado. Within ten minutes, the trail of green light had dissipated and Dakotah stood there, next to her father’s pickup truck, all alone.

On Friday morning, Dakotah loaded her things into her dad’s tan colored pickup truck and drove away from her now empty home and empty small town. A completely empty town, all because of a church without a steeple.