Reverend Udayar stood tall over his congregation, the dim light from above illuminating the rounded edges and wrinkles of his face. Aaradhya sat in the front pew, the Bible laid over their lap. The Reverend's crisp clergy clothing was finely pressed as he finished the last words of his sermon with a poised voice, “As Exodus 22:20 states we must know that whoever sacrifices to any God other than the Lord must be destroyed.” the Reverend slammed his bible to a close. “Thank you everyone, God Bless and have a wonderful night.”

People began to disperse, rising from their seats and returning home to make dinner. Tonight's Church had way less attendees than usual. It wasn’t unusual though, not when most people’s work and school interfered with the timing. Tonight's sermon was in the middle of the week, further explaining the lack of a large, bustling crowd.

Mrs. Bell, the town historian was saying goodbye to everyone when a thought caught Aaradhya’s attention. Making their way through the bundle of others with enough “God be with you’s” and smiles Aaradhya was finally able to tap Mrs. Bell on the shoulder.

She turned, fixing her thin metal glasses, “Aaradhya, how are you?” Her white cardigan was full of embroidered books, some were open and flipping to a page and other books were closed and in piles.

“Good. Good. I just had a quick history question?” Aaradhya had had the idea to ask Mrs. Bell if she’d ever heard of something like their abilities happening before. Surely she would know, Mrs. Bell was one of the smartest people on the island. Trailing only after Mr. Hughes and Kai. They just needed to make sure not to give away what was happening to them.

Mrs. Bell's eyes brightened, she still had a youthful presence despite her age, “Sure, go for it.” Her cross caught the dim light above where they stood.

“Aaradhya!” Their father’s voice interrupted the question. Aaradhya’s gaze switched between their father and Mrs. Bell. Groaning internally at their fathers horrible timing.

“Sorry, can I ask you later?”

“Sure! I’ll see you on the field trip, won’t I?”

“Oh, yeah. I’ll ask you about it there. Thank you, have a nice night.” In a few weeks their class would be sleeping overnight in the museum. Aaradhya had never been to the Gamal museum; history really wasn’t one of their interests. But nevertheless they were pretty excited.

“Good night Aaradhya, God Bless.” Aaradhya watched Mrs. Bell walk away with their question unanswered. She broke open the doors and disappeared into the inky night beyond the white walls of the Church.

“I still need to finish a couple things, can you clean up so we can get out of here hopefully before morning.” He smiled.

Aaradhya nodded, “Sure. I can clean.”

He ruffled their hair, “Thanks. I’ll be quick.” Their father never lied but they both knew when he said he’d be quick, it was never quick. Dinner would most likely be in his office tonight. But nevertheless Aaradhya didn’t mind. Aaradhya’s father vanished into his office.

Moving to the small cleaning closet. It was sequestered near the back of the church, also used to store extra bibles, paperwork for baptisms and their father’s past sermons. The closet was well organised by the shelf since Aaradhya was really the only one who ever used it. They got their supplies before setting off to clean.

“Hey, need any help?” Kai’s hands were shoved into his pocket with straight arms.

A fluttering stomach when Aaradhya neared Kai was becoming recurrent. Though Aaradhya did not particularly dislike the butterflies nor how the tips of their ears felt redder as they conversed. “Are you stalking me or something? Seems that I’m seeing an awful lot of you this week.”

“Are you saying you don’t want help?” He turned to leave but Aaradhya reached out and grabbed hold of his red long sleeve shirt.

He looked down and tilted his head. “Ha, I’m losing my mind, not my common sense. C’mon, grab a broom.”

Brushing through the carpeted pews, Kai and Aaradhya cleaned up the dirt and mud the other parishioners had dragged in. Despite the rugs at the front door it seemed that no one in Gamal knew how to wipe off their feet.

Aaradhya passed him a rag and some disinfectant. He went up and down disinfecting the pews. Soon enough they were done with the nave. Moving towards the back room and kitchen they continued wiping down counters and sweeping dirt off of the wooden floor.

Kai wiped down the kitchen counter, “Do you ever think about leaving Gamal? I know people like Suzanna and Robbie are itching to get off the island.”

“Sounds stupid but, I like Gamal. I like how I can always hear the sounds of the rushing ocean if my window is open. I like how I could probably  walk around it all with my eyes closed. Gamal feels like home, I’ve been here my entire life, where would I even go? Plus, I can’t leave my dad, he’s all I have left now for my family. What about you? Are you going to leave once we graduate?” Aaradhya bent down, sweeping the last remnants of the kitchen dirt into their red dust pan.

“I’m not sure, don’t get me wrong, I love Gamal. It's like I gravitate towards it, the open air, the sea, the sounds. Plus, neither of my sisters will want to become lighthouse keepers, they’d never be happy doing it.”

“And you would?”

“...I think it would leave a lot of time for me to do whatever I wanted.” Aaradhya imagined their life in Gamal in ten years, most likely it would be full of swimming in the ocean, fishing and taking care of the Church. Honestly, it didn't seem too bad.

Gamal was their home after all, the prospect of leaving it after graduation didn’t seem so appealing. Especially with the idea of leaving their father…and going to classes that were double the population of Gamal.

“And what’s that? Study science? Take over the world with your mad inventions?”

Just as Kai began to answer, Aaradhya's father ducked his head into the kitchen where they were standing, “Kai, I didn’t know you were staying late.” Both heads turned towards him.

His voice became quieter, anxiety settling into his bones, “Yeah, if that's okay. My whole family is off gallivanting around the island doing some work.”

“It's no problem, as long as you don’t mind eating some Sambar.”