Saturday, November 18, 2017

Ramifications: Day 16

Word Count: 96,251

Summary of Events:
A regular serving group arrived and one of its members showed Dom some rather depressing tweets about the Shelter, but Elijah encouraged him and he went on to discuss the idea of a hamburger night with one of the other members of the group. Lachlan watched his paycheque get burned — the chosen punishment — and then went to the Shelter looking for a sandwich, which was about all he could eat due to the injuries to his fingers. Dom was invited up to share about the Shelter at the banquet, where he gave the attendees a brief history of the Shelter . . .

Excerpt of the Day:
""The Shelter hasn't necessarily experienced a miracle quite like that one, but we have seen a few in our time," Dom continued. "But more on that later. The Shelter was founded about thirty years ago, when the aging, dwindling congregation of St. Hilda's Anglican Church decided to merge with another, younger congregation, putting their building up for sale. It was purchased by a wonderful woman by the name of Margaret Quinton — affectionately known to all as Mags."
Dom did half wish he had a glass of water, but he forged on.
"Mags had been born into a military family in Townsville and had suffered the heartbreaking death of her father, Second Lieutenant Arthur Quinton, in the Battle of Coral-Balmoral in Vietnam as a child," Dom went on. "With her mother being forced to work, Mags and her siblings were left unattended, and Mags quickly became a handful for her mother before running away from home at seventeen to join the hippie movement here in Brisbane, taking drugs and partying little different from what teenagers do today."
Turning away from the microphone, Dom cleared his throat.
"During the flood of nineteen seventy four Mags was rescued by a young man whom she considered quite fetching," Dom continued. "He rebuffed her romantic advances, however, telling her he wasn't into free love. He shared the Gospel with her and she soon became a Christian. They were engaged to be married when he died helping rescue people from a sinking pleasure craft. This devastated Mags, but his parents encouraged her and she soon decided that she was going to remain unmarried for the rest of her days and do whatever God wanted her to do. It was then that she heard about the selling of the St. Hilda's building and bought it."
Mr. Arnold set a glass of water on the podium. Dom nodded gratefully and took a sip.
"Much better, thank you," Dom said. "Anyways. Mags was somewhat a whimsical person, but she did have a plan in mind when she purchased the building, and had it renovated to largely how it exists today. She then opened the doors and started serving food. She had full intention of coming up with a name for the place, but it never happened, so it has become known simply as the Shelter. This, all, was before my time, both in the sense that I wasn't born, and I wasn't in Brisbane.""

No comments:

Post a Comment