The New Acolyte

Each May the priests came, the went into the country in their blue and golden robes and visited all the schools in the country. When I was in the lower classes it was always a happy celebratory day, we made decorations to welcome the priests, we stood on the playground and cheered as they walked in, and we got to eat special celebration lunch, even if they didn’t pick anybody from our school.

They only selected five girls each year to come and serve the God. It was a great, great honor, you got to live in the temple and your days would be filled with cleaning and praying and studying the will of the God.

Ever since I was young I wanted to be selected. I wanted to be deemed special. I wanted to be swept away by those fancy looking priests and brought into the temple. I would sweep the floors and pray and be the best damn acolyte of them all. I would be the first ever from my school that was selected, the entire school would be so proud of me, they would hang a picture of me in the hallways.

This year, this may, I was finally old enough. I had just turned nineteen, I was part of class K, the final year. That was the year they choose from. Two priests came. We waited on them on the playground, we cheered and waved the blue and gold flags we had crafted. I stood on my toes and tried to get a glimps of the priests. I could only see one of them, she was a woman of about thirty years old maybe. Once they entered the school and were welcomed by the director, we also entered the school. Most of the children went back to their classrooms but the girls from my year went to the auditorium.

My teacher said we had to change, that we had to put on our ceremonial robes now, I already knew that, we’d already rehearsed everything. I went and try to get the prettiest ceremonial robe, but apparently I wasn’t the only one that wanted to make a good impression. All the girls dived onto the pile of robes, tugging and fighting.

Last week in our church there was a sermon about not fighting and being kind towards each other, so I just waited till the other girls were done fighting but then I was left with a lousy faded robe. I undressed myself. The robes kind of looked like ballet leotards except they didn’t have a crotch. It was just a tight lycra top which barely covered our bum. Mine was a bit too big though, so I didn’t have to uncomfortably tug on the fabric like the other girls. I ran my hands on the metallic smooth lycra. It was nice soft and cold against my skin, I kind of wanted to dance but I kept standing up straight. We had to stand in one big line, all in our bright blue robes, we had to be quiet and then the priests came in.

They wore long robes all the way to the ground, in the same bright blue but theirs had beautiful golden stripes and ornaments on it. One of the women I’d seen outside already, although she was way more pretty up close, the other women was younger, maybe in her early twenties, she had angelic blond curls and friendly cheeks. I briefly made eye contact with her and she nodded. Maybe that was a good sign, was it a good sign?

The priest just strolled along the line looking at us. Now and again they pulled a chin up high, or they twirled a girl around. I did my utmost best to stand up straight and pretty eagerly I awaited them, and then they finally stood in front of me. It was overwhelming, those women were priests, they had been in direct contact with our God, they had met him, they spread his message here on earth, they were almost holy by association.

I didn’t notice I had been holding my breath until one of the priests said: “Breath girl” to me. They hadn’t said anything to anyone else. I didn’t know whether to feel special or to feel ashamed of myself. One of the priests turned me around. They looked at my backside, there hands around my waist, tugging on my ceremonial robes. For a moment they whispered amongst each other, they nodded then they asked my name.

‘Vivi.’ I said.

‘Named after Vivianne?’ The priest asked.

I nodded. According to our Solfin, the book that contained all our holy stories, Vivianne was the first girl ever to be selected to come serve God in the temple. She was handpicked by God himself when he saw her feeding some stray-cats in the street. According to legend she was so beautiful you’d faint when you saw her, and her kindness and servitude were so overwhelming you’d felt ashamed and compelled to be more kind in the future. But that happened thousands and thousands of years ago. Three girls in my class were named after Vivianne. I was Vivi S.

The priests whispered some more. The tension in the auditorium was almost palpable, from the look on our teachers face and the look on our principles face I could deduce this wasn’t normal. My hearth was pounding like crazy. They would pick me, they would have to pick me. I didn’t dare to fold my hands and start praying so in silence I send up a little message to our God.

‘Please Sir, let them pick me, tell them to pick me please.’ I said.

Then the priests turned around, they send out the other girls but they told me to stay. They told me that I was a very special girl and that they had selected me to come live in the temple. I grinned like and idiot from ear to ear and didn’t know what to say. I was so happy I could jump or scream or kiss the priests, but I didn’t want to do anything indignant that made them change their minds. So I just grinned like the Cheshire cat from Alice in wonderland and thanked them from all of my heart.

***

Everyone was so proud of me. My parents, my neighbors, my teachers, the people at my church, some people came to me to ask me with special prayers. Some of my classmates were jealous, I could see it in their eyes yet they didn’t dare to tease me or be mean to me. I had to attend school till the first of June. Then me and the four other girls would be part of the big Intrabis, a ceremony that was televised each year, I had watched it obsessively each year and it was kind of hard to believe that now I would be part of it. I would be one of the five.

I already had my special dress and I couldn’t wait till the big day. I had to sit on a carrier chair and in a big procession with music and flower petals they would carry me and the other five girl from the great Obelisk over the cobblestone road to the entrance of the temple.

It was so surreal and a bit overwhelming. Before I climbed on the carrier chair one of the priest gave me a little wafer that I was supposed to melt under my tongue. It kind of resembled the wafers we got at churched only this one tasted different, it had a bitter after taste that clung to my tongue.

‘Don’t worry.’ The priest said, she was stroking my hair and readjusting the blue flowers in my hair. ‘I know it tastes different than what you’re used to, this is a special wafer only for the selected five. It’ll help you.’

I nodded and climbed up on the carrier chair. I hadn’t met the other four girls yet, and I could only see them from a distance climbing onto their own chairs. One of them had the blond hair I saw and an other one seemed to be Asian, although maybe I was being racist. Once I sat on my chair it was lifted high up in the air. It was quite wobbly. We had to wait for a little while but eventually the procession began.

People were cheering us on, they were throwing flower petals and rice, there was music playing. I felt weird, like my head and limps were tingling somehow. There was so much noise and everybody was so happy. Except for one lady, she pressed up against the barriers and was crying and screaming.

‘Don’t take my June,’ she begged. ‘Please don’t take my June.’ She was dragged away by some cops.