Suddenly she noticed that these people were giving her very strange gazes and she glanced at Jeff, but he was smiling, and the woman thought she had just imagined that something was wrong.
This time a woman entered with a group of children. Impressed, Vera wanted to count them, but after seven she got mixed up, and tried again.
«Wow,» she quietly asked Jeff. «Are they all her children?»
«Yep!» He grinned, waving to the woman. «Fourteen kids.»
«My God!» Vera looked again.
«Mommy, mommy!» suddenly one of these children cried out. «Look, a white girl.»
The woman shook her son, and hissed something to him, and a surprised Vera looked about and discovered she really was the only Caucasian in the building.
She felt uncomfortable, and she moved her eyes to Jeff and saw his smile disappeared.
Then Vera sat straight, not looking at the door anymore, but sensing the glares from the people in the church. She was glad she was with Jeff.
«I hope he will protect me if something happens,» she thought, appalled by meeting such unexpected hostility.
Vera chuckled to herself recalling how, when she was in elementary school in Moscow, they wrote a letter against racism and sent it to the government of the U.S.A.
A minister went to the table. He was smiling, but when he saw Vera, he gazed at her, then at Jeff, and his face became serious. He checked his microphone, and pronounced, «Good morning, my beloved brothers and sisters. Before we start today’s ceremony I believe Jeff has something to tell us.»
Vexed, Jeff got up, and a worried Vera did the same.
«Let me introduce Vera Grach,» Jeff said with irritation in his voice. «She’s Russian, from Moscow. She’s an artist, and she’s visiting an American church for the first time.»
«Russian…» A surprised whisper ran over the hall, and the tenseness became lighter. Vera sighed with relief, and nodded to the people.
The ceremony was very different from Russian worship. They prayed, then sang a song, and a cheered up Vera clapped her hands together with all the people.
Then it was over and the people went to the exit. The minister called Jeff, and Jeff walked to him. Becoming concerned again, Vera stayed in the middle of the room, as she could not go back to the pew, and did not dare go outside without Jeff.
People looked her over, and, feeling nervous, Vera tried to keep smiling.
«So, you’re Russian,» one woman said to her, trying to be polite. Vera nodded.
«I like Russians,» the woman continued. «I think they are… cool.»
A little girl went close. «What do you draw?» she asked Vera.