THE GRAND TOUR OF OKLAHOMA
Chapter Twenty One "Oh my God, look at that." The Doctor and Rose came around the bus to Jenny who was looking at something to her left. They came up beside her and did a double take. On the other side of the gravel parking lot was a large luxury coach bus that looked brand new. On the side was a painting of three Indians riding horse in traditional dress and under it in big red letters was COMANCHES ON THE MOVE. "Does that belong to another church?" Jenny said. "If so, I wish we had it." They walked over to it, admiring it. "You know these people didn't come here with their teeth rattling the entire way," Rose said. "I love the painting too," Jenny said. "Wow…damn, I can see TVs in there so they got to watch TV too. Lucky ducks." "I wonder what their church looks like if they can afford this," Rose said as they turned and walked to the church. "Probably grand," Jenny said. "I bet they own a casino and get money from that. The Indian church isn't like that." "Yeah, I noticed it looked a bit worn," the Doctor said. "Not like the mega churches some groups have." "This place is simple too," Jenny said, pointing to the small wooden church that was sitting just outside a forest. They went inside and stopped when a group of people blocked their way. The group slowly dispersed and they saw the reason when they noticed a table just inside the door had coffee and doughnuts on it. "Ugh, I'm sick of doughnuts," Jenny said, making a face. "Lot of shelters give you that and once I stop being homeless, I'm staying as far away from doughnuts as I possibly can." "Not to mention we just had one of our burgers," Rose said. "I'm giving the doughnuts a miss too." "I'm a nonconformist!" the Doctor said, snatching a chocolate doughnut out of the box. "You're also a bottomless pit," Rose said as they walked down the aisle to a pew. "Yeah, well you're a Doo Hog," the Doctor said. "O…kay," Jenny said while the Doctor and Rose laughed. "Don't know what Doo Hog is and I'm not sure I wanna know." "He's picking on me because I got a Scooby Doo blanket at Sister BJs yesterday and he's calling me a Doo Hog." "She didn't need it!" the Doctor said as they sat down. "Oh, shut up and eat your doughnut," Rose said. The Doctor grinned and took a bite of it. Everyone else filled in around them. The Doctor glanced around and noticed that the parishioners were still mainly Indian, although one group had a couple of black teens with them. He turned back around and put his arm around Rose. When everyone was settled down in their seats, the Indian minister took the podium and the room fell silent. "I want to thank everyone for coming today," the minister said. "I don't have much to say, just a few words and we have a presentation by our youth group who will sing a couple of songs for you. After that, we'll go to the community center for the dinner." The Doctor, Rose and Jenny listened while the minister delivered his sermon. After speaking for about twenty minutes, he asked the youth group to come up to the front and sing. Ten kids and teenagers came up to the front and sang a couple of hymns. Everyone applauded them and they sat back down when they were finished. "And now," the minister said, looking at some people in the front row, "we have Lucy who will sing us a traditional song in the Cherokee language." "Oh cool," Jenny whispered to her friends. Lucy, a short, thin woman with long flowing black hair stood up and faced everyone. "I want to sing Amazing Grace in the Cherokee language." "Oh, I thought when she said that, she meant a traditional Cherokee song," Jenny whispered to her friends. "Yeah, I was hoping for the same thing," the Doctor whispered back. The woman began to sing Amazing Grace in Cherokee. The Doctor could still understand her and he had to admit the translation was pretty close to the original song but he was still a bit disappointed that she wasn't singing a traditional tribal song. When she was finished, everyone applauded and she sat back down. "This concludes the service," the minister said. "Okay, everyone, once you leave here, turn right and drive about two miles. You'll see a road but don't turn down it because that'll lead to our powwow grounds." "P'eh, I'd rather go see a powwow," Jenny muttered to the Doctor and Rose. "Yeah, me too," the Doctor muttered back. "The community center is just beyond that road along the highway," the minister said. "We'll see you there and I'm sure the First Comanche Baptist Church will be going there in style." Everyone laughed while the Comanche smiled and nodded. "For anyone who hasn't seen their bus, go out and take a look, "the minister said. "They have come up from Ardmore and I understand that you watched movies the entire time?" "Yes," a Comanche woman said, "we have TVs in our brand new bus and we watched movies all the way here." "Lucky ducks," Jenny muttered to her friends. Everyone got up and The Doctor, Rose and Jenny waited until the crowd thinned out. As they headed out, they noticed other people standing around, admiring the bus. "Lucky ducks!" Rose said while the Doctor and Jenny giggled. They got on their bus and the Doctor stuck his tongue out at the Comanche bus while Rose and Jenny laughed. "You're rubbish, you are, you and your fancy-schmancy bus!" the Doctor said. "We're ten times better than you and your fancy-schmancy tellys and DVD players!" Everyone climbed into their bus and the driver waited for the parking lot to clear out before he followed. "No," the Doctor said when they passed the road the minister mentioned. "I wanna see a powwow!" "Yeah, me too, powwow for me!" Jenny said. Rose was sipping the remainder of her Coke and smiled at that. She noticed something though. In all the time they'd been on the bus, no one had bothered to talk to them and even in the church, no one came up to introduce themselves. Even Alice who had been friendly to them was talking with others up near the front and the rest barely looked their way. She wondered if it had something to do with the perception of them being homeless or if it was because they were strangers. She was glad she had the Doctor and Jenny to talk to because she knew she would have felt uneasy being all alone with no one speaking to her. The bus slowed and pulled into a large parking lot that surrounded a big modern looking concrete building that had been painted tan to resemble adobe. The parking lot was paved over and also looked new which was a stark contrast to the simple wooden church and gravel parking lot there. They got out and walked around to the side, going through a glass door in a large communal room. The walls had tribal shields and other artifacts on them. At the back was a stage, a blue curtain closed over it. On the other side were two long tables with a shorter table sitting beside it. People were setting food on these and a cooler full of drinks on the shorter table. In between these were eight rows of long tables with metal folding chairs. A woman directed the churches to different tables so everyone would be sitting together with their group. The Indian church got the sixth table and the Doctor sat down with Rose and Jenny sitting across from him. When everyone was in their seats, the minister came in and offered a prayer before eating. After that, the tables were called one by one to get up and queue up. It took a bit for their table to be called but the Doctor, Rose and Jenny moved quickly through the line to the tables. There was fried chicken, meat loaf, corn soup, salad, fruits and vegetables, potato salad, macaroni salad, a cheese and cold meats platter and fry bread. Everyone took a paper plate and plastic silverware and moved in front of the table, choosing what they wanted. Once they were finished and got a cupful of Coke, they walked back to their table. All of them took a small sample of everything but when Rose bit into the fry bread, her eyes widened in delight. "This fry bread is good!" she said. "I know, it's so flaky and has a kind of greasy taste that makes it taste really good," Jenny said. "If we're allowed to go up for seconds, I want more," Rose said. "Sorry, Rose," the Doctor said. "For what?" Rose said. "You won't get any because I'm getting it all!" "Oh yeah, not before I do," Rose said while Jenny giggled. Jenny laughed harder when the Doctor began to eat faster. "Sod that, I'm not choking to death in Ponca City," Rose said, waving her hand dismissively. "You have it all, Eating Machine!" "Good! Because I was gonna prevent you from getting to them anyway," the Doctor said. Jenny chuckled and sipped her corn soup. About twenty minutes later, the Doctor finished his meal and got up to get more. "Ha, I win!" he said, lightly smacking Rose on the head before he moved down the table. "The fry bread is mine!" "He's such a kid sometimes, you'll see what I mean the longer you stay around him," Rose said to Jenny while the Doctor hurried to get in the short queue by the tables. Five minutes later, the Doctor returned with a sour look on his face. "What's wrong?" Jenny asked as he sat down. "I got up there; the fry bread was all gone. I hate being at table six! This isn't fair!" "Aw, poor baby, you'll live," Rose said. She ducked her head when the Doctor tried to swat at it and Jenny giggled. After they ate, they walked outside while everyone else milled about. Rose noticed the same thing as before, everyone ignored them except for the people behind the serving tables who smiled and said hello to them. She finally told this to the Doctor and Jenny. "I noticed that too. I don't know if it's because we're homeless, we're probably just new and they really don't know what to say to us. I'm sure these people have been doing this for awhile and probably know each other and have a lot of talk about and catch up on. We're just three strangers but I do think they should have at least said hello and asked about us, especially our group. It's a little rude to invite us and then ignore us the entire trip. Especially your friend, Alice, she seems to know you well enough." "She does. But I guess she wants to stay up near the front and chat with her friends," Jenny said. "Ah well, we have each other," the Doctor said. "We can talk amongst ourselves." "Yeah, we're all the company we need," Rose said, nodding her head. They looked at Jenny and noticed she was looking at the Comanche bus. "Upset that we're not going back in that?" the Doctor said to her. "No, it's just…" "Just what?" the Doctor said. "This upsets me," Jenny said, pointing to the painting on the side. "It does? Why?" the Doctor said. "Okay, look at it for a few seconds and then turn around." The Doctor and Rose looked at it and then turned to look at the crowd milling around outside the community center. "Now turn back around," Jenny said. They turned back around to the bus. "And turn around again." They turn back to the crowd and Jenny turned with them. "It upsets me because these people have put their heritage on the side of a bus while they act like white people," she said to them. The Doctor raised his eyebrow at that and looked at Rose. "I mean, I'm not knocking their choice of religion but…they're reduced to painting themselves as they were and putting it there," Jenny said, pointing to the bus, "And then they ride in it in their European clothes with most of them wearing European hair styles while they practice a religion that's not originally theirs. It just makes me sad because it seems like this is what the white man set out to do with them and they won. Same with the alcohol and the drunkenness. I just find it all ironic." "She's right," Rose said. "It is a bit sad that they paint themselves on the bus as they were and this isn't them, at least not full time." "I was a bit upset when that Cherokee woman only sang Amazing Grace in her own language. It was beautiful but I wanted to hear something else that was their own," the Doctor said while Jenny nodded. "Still, they made their decision on what religion to follow and we need to respect that even if they only honor the old ways by painting them on their bus." They waited till everyone else got back on the bus and they followed them. Once they were settled back in their seats, the driver shut the door and started the bus, heading back to Oklahoma City.
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