Week 1
Did anybody else notice that thing in sacrament meeting today hovering behind the speaker and telling him what to say? I asked the bishop about it after church and he said he didn’t notice anything strange.
Week 2
That weird entity was back at church again this week, but this time it was the fourth speaker. Everybody around me in the pews was perfectly still and silent while it spoke and although its voice just sounded like unintelligible static, I swear I heard it say my name several times amongst the fuzz and cracks. I mentioned it to my wife after the meeting but she insisted there were only three speakers today.
Week 3
That thing was back at church again today. I saw it in the foyer sitting on the couch with a couple of members of the ward. Its voice was still staticky and muffled, but I could understand more words this time: “you can sit with us, Matt,” it said “come sit with us and be free.”
I turned and went the other way, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. What the heck is it? And what does it mean I can “be free?” I thought I was free – and if I wasn’t, I doubt something like that could help me. But then again, maybe I should doubt my doubt??
Week 4
Something weird happened when I was walking up to church today – there was a new doorway but the new entrance was through the mouth of that weird entity I was telling you about – like literally I people were walking into its mouth.
I considered it for a second, but it still felt wrong somehow, so I just used the regular old door. But now I can’t stop thinking about that new way and the people who I saw who went into it. I dunno. Maybe I’ll go that way next week.
Week 5
I went in the new way to church today. And at first things were a bit different, but I guess for the most part, it was the same. It was like regular church but a little darker and grimier.
That repulsive thing from the last couple weeks spoke for the entire meeting – but this time I could understand everything it said clearly – and its words were poison. It spoke of hate and contention, of grievance and retribution. I recoiled. I wanted to leave, but I questioned that thought when I noticed that everybody else sitting around me was smiling and nodding along – so maybe I was misunderstanding it? Was I the one who was wrong?
It promised that it would save those of us who had entered this new path. It said that those who clung to the old way to church were our enemies – and it promised to destroy them, which the congregation loved. But not me. What it was saying felt to me like the exact opposite of what I thought church was about. But why couldn’t the others see that when it was so clear to me? As soon as the meeting ended, I hurried and left without speaking to anyone.
Week 6
I made sure to avoid that new way today, and went into church like I always have, but unfortunately that thing’s exclusion and cruelty had already infected everyone there. No matter which way I entered, it was impossible to avoid.
Everyone was repeating its venomous words – they looked and sounded just like that thing. I had to run away before it infected me.
Week 7
After what happened last week, I decided to stay home from church today. But then a few minutes after the meeting ended, I heard a couple of voices calling to me from the street in front of my house. It was four people from church, the ones infected by the new path. They were shrouded in darkness and hovering a few inches above the asphalt. They wanted me to come out and talk to them, they weren’t speaking their poison and they were hiding their extra rows of teeth, but I could tell it was just an act because they were out in the open. I ignored them and stayed inside, but I just looked out the window and they were still there, waiting and watching.
Matt Page is the beloved wildman of Mormon visual art. This story originally appeared in slightly different form on his Instagram.
