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confessed trying not to sound cynical.
    â€œStop playing girl!” Alicia turned in her seat to look back at me.
    â€œI’m not playing. I really don’t know.”
    â€œWhat?” Alicia responded in disbelief. “Miss Gotta Go To Church at least four days a week, sing in the choir, usher, and to everything else cause I’m the Preacher’s Kid.”
    â€œAlicia!” Andrea cut her off. “It’s okay Dani. A lot of people don’t really know what salvation means. And some might never know because people assume they already know and don’t tell them.” Andrea glanced at Alicia several times, seemingly to give some message that Alicia didn’t get or was choosing to ignore. Then she continued, looking at me in the rear view mirror as she drove. “Being saved means accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Admitting you are a sinner and you’re sorry for those sins. It’s believing that Jesus was born of a virgin, died on the cross for your sins and rose after three days. It’s believing that God forgives you and has washed you clean with the shedding of Jesus’ blood at Calvary.” Andrea spoke with sincerity.
“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shall be saved. Romans 10:9.”
She added smiling.
    â€œFor God so loved,”
Alicia began and I finished with her,
“the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16.”
    â€œNana taught me that when I was a little girl.” I smiled thinking of her and the memory of learning that scripture.
    â€œIt’s in there,” Andrea smiled. “Stop fighting it.”
    â€œGirl, being saved is knowing you don’t have to do this life thing by yourself.” Alicia’s tone softened. “It’s knowing Jesus is always with you.”
    We arrived at The Sanctuary and it was huge compared to St. Luke’s. I noticed some of the people from the PUMP meeting in the parking lot and scanned the crowd for Gregory. He wasn’t there. That was okay, I had on Alicia’s pants suit and it wasn’t something I would have bought, but it matched my shoes.
    As the service began I thought about St. Luke’s. Mom would be sitting in the second row, aisle seat, left of the pulpit. She would be humming Blessed Assurance with her eyes closed. I thought about Nana and closed my eyes to thank her for teaching me scriptures so I didn’t feel like a complete dunce. I thought about the previous night and wondered if I would see Gregory again.
    The preacher talked about the Lord being our keeper. He read from Psalms 121:5 – 8:
    The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore.
    Jesus as a keeper. Nana had also talked about Jesus being the perfect keeper. I wanted to be kept by Him and decided to take going to church more seriously.
    My cousins and I spent the evening trying to get caught up. Alicia was a high school math teacher. She had contemplated going back to get her doctorate before realizing she really enjoyed teaching and her master’s degree would suffice. Her boyfriend, Dennis, had accepted a job inNew York in April and she was unsure of where the relationship was going. She admitted she loved him.
    Andrea was a high school guidance counselor and was pursing her doctoral degree in Educational Administration. She was on a personal five year plan to become a school superintendent. Andrea contacted me during my senior year when she attended a conference at Penn State. The three hours we spent on the phone trying to catch up seemed to pass like minutes and we promised