Aaron races to Sunday Mass to meet his grandmother, and as usual, gets more than he bargained for.
Listen Free: | Apple Podcasts | Pandora | Stitcher | Spotify |
Story created & performed by: Aaron Calafato
Senior Audio Engineer: Ken Wendt
Additional vocals: Cori Birce
Art: Pete Whitehead
Original Music: thomas j. duke
S3 EPISODE 12: SUNDAY MASS - powered by Happy Scribe
You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. This is season three. If you want to connect with us or grab some merch, visit us at 7minutestories.com. That's the Number 7minutestories.com. This episode, Sunday Mass.
I'm standing in a church in front of a man whose work you're probably familiar with. He's written books about Hollywood, Monica Lewinsky. He's responsible for the screenplays of the movies Flashdance, Jagged Edge, Basic Instinct, Showgirls, and he's about to say something that's going to make me cry.
But before we get to that, let me tell you how I got into this situation. My grandmother called and asked Cori and I to attend Sunday Mass with her. She said that the mass was going to honor the memory of my grandpa Joe. Now, I've told a lot of 7 Minute Stories about my grandfather, and even though he passed away several years ago, I still feel like he's with me to this day.
It was Sunday morning, and I was exhausted, but Cori really was the one that nudged me and pushed us to go to this service. We drive the 45 minutes to the other county, and Cori, along the way, is like, "Hey, do you want me to put this in my GPS on my phone?" I said, "Cori, I've been to this church thousands of times. I grew up basically in the summers with my grandparents. I know where the place is." She was, "Are you sure?" I said, "Yeah, absolutely," and I was proven right because, as I told her, "You go and you get off the exit, take a right, and just a mile down the road, you take a left, there's the church."
We pull into the parking lot, and we're already running late because we don't do Sunday mornings early very well. So we're running late. We're sweating. We sprint into the church, and when we get into that, I don't know what you call it, is it the vestibule, or is it the foyer? There are these words to describe waiting areas when you walk into a building before the actual place itself. Whatever you want to call it. You know what I'm talking about.
There's a bunch of people standing there. They're greeting each other even before the service begins, and we're shaking hands. We're like politicians going in there. "Who are you looking for?" My grandmother's name is Barbara, Barb. I said, "Where's Barb? Do you know who Barb is?" "I don't know," and they're looking to find Barb to connect us. Right.
But it was a whole task because people wanted to greet us. We were new. "Welcome. We haven't seen you." They didn't recognize me from going there as a kid, and I leave Cori by herself because I have to go to the bathroom really bad. A lot of coffee that morning. I ran to the bathroom, and washed my hands, flushed water on my face, and just like, "Hey, just get through this day."
When I get back out, and I see Cori; she's wide-eyed and looks white as a ghost. I'm like, "Oh, man, what's going on?" I see she's standing next to what appears to be the priest, and what's amazing is the priest is a woman. Now, we're Catholic, and I should say I grew up Catholic, and that's just not something that happens, and I thought, "Man, this new pope," right? "This new pope is on the cutting edge, and the Catholic Church is really turning it around. We're on the progressive edge, and finally we have female priests, as it should be. Sisters, nuns, that's great. Fathers, monks, that's cool, too, but female freaking priests, amazing."
I look at Cori, and I realize that's not what it is. She's giving me the signal of, like, "No, no, no." I go up to her. She stops her conversation with the female priest and turns to me, and says, "We're at a Lutheran church." I look around, and I realize, especially after looking at the female pastor, we're at the wrong church, and I start laughing. The funny thing is, I actually could feel my grandfather cracking up with me simultaneously. I really mean this. I felt that.
We weren't in the laughing mood because we had to get out of this situation. People were trying to bring us into the service. We couldn't give an explanation. We couldn't give a story. The only thing we could think to do was run.
Cori and I, with no announcement, no other word spoken, looked at each other and sprinted out like Bonnie and Clyde of the church, and we run to our car. We're already even more late. We drive, and of course, down the road, like half a mile to the left, is the actual Catholic church.
Cori and I run into the church. My grandmother's standing in the vestibule. She's so relieved to see us, and she goes, "You guys are running late." I said, "Grandma, you won't believe what happened," and we started laughing. I said, "We went to the wrong church. We almost would do a different service." She goes, "I can't believe it. Your grandfather would think this is hilarious."
We hug each other. She goes, "Hurry up, we're going to be late." We go in and sit in the pews. Mass starts, and just as I'm about to start praying, my grandmother goes, "Hey" and she points to this gentleman in front of her. She goes, "That's Joe. He's such a sweet man," and I'm thinking, "Oh, man. My grandfather's name is Joe." I'm like, "Oh, Grandma."
Before I could say anything, she goes, "No, that's Joe Eszterhas." I'm like, "Joe Eszterhas?" That sounded familiar. She said, "He's done a lot of movies in Hollywood. He did Basic Instinct." She goes, "Have you ever seen Showgirls?" I said, "Grandma, I don't think I want to talk to you about this, but yes, I have. I'm familiar with his work."
I thought, "This is so bizarre." But she said, "Yeah, he's an Ohio guy and had this life in Hollywood and has been a writer and a screenwriter and has come back to his hometown and is a very faithful Catholic, and he's a really key important member of our church." He turned around, he looks, he smiles at us, and we wave, "Hey, how you doing?" There's this really surreal moment that the guy who wrote Flash Dance is sitting right in front of me as we're about to attend this Mass. The Mass starts, goes on, everything's great.
The male priest at the Catholic Church says my grandfather's name and says, "This Mass is an honor of Joe." When I looked over at my grandmother in that moment, I saw her eyes well up with tears. She reached over and grabbed my hand. I thought about it, and I looked over at Cori, and I thought about it. I was like, "I'm so glad Cori made me come to this," because it was clear that my grandmother had been waiting all month just for that moment, just for them to say my grandfather's name, to resurrect him, if you will, in this very moment, to keep him alive in this moment of the living. Watching that was a spiritual experience. It just was.
But it even got more interesting because right after this moment, during the piece where everyone's greeting each other, Joe Eszterhas turns around, looks at me and Cori and my grandmother, and gives us a very familiar smile. It was almost haunting, and he walks up slowly to my grandmother and gives her this wonderful hug, and kisses her gently on her cheek. Then I hear him say to her quietly, "This kiss is from Joe." Then I started crying. I wiped the tear from my eye, and I peered in and looked at him, and I said to myself, "I know this is Joe Eszterhas, writer of Flash Dance and Basic Instinct, but maybe on this Sunday morning, there were two Joe's there, just for that moment." I mean, anything can happen at Sunday Mass.
7 Minute Stories have created and performed by Aaron Califato. Our senior audio engineer is Ken Wendt. Our resident artist is Pete Whitehead. Original music by TJ Duke. If you or your company needs help starting a podcast, Aaron and Ken's company, Valley View, does just that. Reach out to them at valleyview.fm. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts, and I'm Cori Birce. Make sure to tune in next week for another story.
Like 7 Minute Stories?
FOLLOW 7MS on Apple Podcasts, unlock old episodes & Binge hundreds more!
Thanks to our partners
