The Clarkl Soup Kitchens by Mary Carmen Page A

services start in earnest. We have decided to take next Monday as a holiday, and I will play the services by myself. I also will play some of our recorded anthems, thus giving the choir a free day.
    The Reverend Walters assures me the Monarchs will want to attend the Easter services. I don’t really believe it, but I think we are as ready with the music as we can get.
    Three women stopped by my cabin this evening with ham hors d’oeuvres. The canned ham was a gift from some do-gooder in Virginia , and it arrived just this afternoon. Of course, we won’t serve ham to the locals since they are vegetarians.
    I have seen no animals on Clarkl other than the human types that visit the dining room. The Reverend Walters assures me that great beasts roam the colder parts of the planet, never coming close to the equator. The locals do not ever consider eating them.
    What I would do right now for a really fine steak!
    April 3, 2144 – The Maundy Thursday service was a triumph. The choir really sounded good, and the homily was fitting and not too foreboding about the terrible Good Friday events.
    We had a few locals in the pews, too. We have been here for many, many years, and some of the Clarklians are aware this is our big week.
    Some of the Americans from the New Christian Congregation’s dining room were at the service, and so were some of the people from the farms. Ours is the only formal Christian service on this planet, as far as I know, and we expect to see even more Americans tomorrow and on Sunday.
    This is my first Holy Week at the organ, too. I served as a volunteer substitute organist at our church at home, but the starting lineup was always on duty during Easter week. I rehearsed with the choir once or twice, but I never got the call.
    April 4, 2144 – Monarchs everywhere today! They ate in the dining room and attended both services in the sanctuary!
    We brought back the Maundy Thursday anthem for the second service, just so the exalted ones would not think we had only the two we rehearsed for both services.
    These entities are frightful! Great blobs of skin protrude from their heads! I caught myself starring at them and forced myself to turn away.
    The Reverend Walters brought out his complete stock in trade, starting with the annunciation, moving to the virgin birth, then describing the first miracle at the wedding, and finally telling the complete story of the crucifixion. My fanny was numb, and I, on the organ bench, had the softest seat in the house.
    At the second service, he threw in the Sermon on the Mount for good measure.
    He usually speaks for twenty minutes. At the first service he ran on for one hour and twenty minutes, and at the second service he clocked in at just under two hours.
    The Monarchs did not leave! They listened to every word, translated into their language, as always.
    A few heads nodded in time with the Bach, and those blobs wiggled and waggled.
    I believe there were thirty Monarchs in total. The choir was facing the congregation, and their estimates range between twenty-five and forty.
    The pecking order was clear to us. The ones in the front pew were the highest in status.
    I wish we had performed the Myllar. That is the best of this week’s numbers, and we were saving it until Easter.
    April 5, 2144 – The excitement has somewhat died down. We still had to complete our two services today, but our hearts were not really in them. The guests had gone.
    The dining room manager has posted a list of exactly what the Monarchs ate. They were happy with the pumpkin stew and finished that off. They did not care much for the cabbage and corn fritters. They cleaned us out of apple pie, with our complete supply being rushed from the freezer to the oven to the serving line.
    April 6, 2144 – Easter went very well. The locals know this is our big day, and about three dozen came to the early service and a dozen came to the later service.
    These locals, when there are a significant number of them,