“Ha! I’m not that ancient. We’re on our third building now. Goes back to the Civil War. Services were once held in the Capitol.”

“Why was that?”

I like to feed my grandfather questions. He’s in love with information. Grandma is happy as long as she’s holding your arm. Grandpa is happy as long as he’s gifting you with facts, or digging up new ones.

“The first minister was chaplain of the House of Representatives. And did you know that the church built schools for freed slaves?”

Once we were inside, I made a beeline for the women’s room. Splashed water on my face and rubbed my concealer stick everywhere I could think of. Red around the eyes and gray under them. Do church people scare easily? I touched both birds in the earrings Mom gave me for my birthday. They sat on a silver branch running across each hoop. The tiny birds gave me courage. You look fine, said the person in my head. You will be fine. Lo and behold, I was fine. Able to enter with jaunty indifference a room full of strangers.

I worked my way back through the adults, the little kids, a few teenagers milling about. A lady handed me a program and a stalk of some sort.

“Oh, there you are, Maddy!” called Grandma, sounding anxious.

“I see everyone’s got their palm branch.”

“Frond,” said Grandpa.

“Frond. I stand corrected.” I rolled my eyes. Grandpa grinned and poked me in the arm. I elbowed him away.

“They’re ethically sourced,” said Grandma, taking my arm and tucking it to her side. After a minute I pulled away, pretending to search for something in my bag. I wasn’t going to tell her about seeing Mom and Robin at the dim sum. There were plenty of other things for me to be crying about.

I followed them down the aisle of a sanctuary that was just as plain as the lobby. The blandness of the decor surprised me. Was there such a thing as taking humility too far? No carpet. No stained glass. Completely lacking in color except for a sea-and-sky quilt hanging behind the stage, where a piano and music stands were set up. In place of pews there were chairs, plus a set of polished wooden bleachers along one wall. My grandparents made straight for the second tier of the bleachers. People had left them a space and were turning to greet them.