Sitting Up Front ©

Growing up, our family was always late to church, but, not so for the family next door. One particular day, my next door neighbor, and very good friend, invited me to go to church with his family. I went, not realizing that they habitually arrived extremely early and always sat up front! This was a bad situation because my friend and I always made each other laugh in church, which is fine as long as you sit in back. We truly tried to behave, but old habits die hard. It was just a matter of time before the laughter would start. Sitting between his dad and myself, my friend was slowly testing the limits of his dad’s patience. Then, ever so slowly, my friend picked a piece of thread off of his dad’s shoulder and held it up for investigation. Why he did this, I have no idea. He was being quite silly, holding the thread up and examining it from all sides. It caught my attention. His dad couldn’t believe it either. I think his dad would have really let loose...except we were sitting up front. His dad knew he couldn’t make any noise, so in a fit of exasperation he took a deep breath and blew the thread out of his son’s hand. It flew out of my friend’s hand, through the air and ended up hanging from my nostril. With my friend and his dad staring at me, I looked down at my nose, my eyes crossed, eyebrows raised, my face said it all. That was the end. We all tried to hold in the laughter, but to no avail. I lost it, my friend lost it, and even my friend’s dad couldn’t keep it in! Laughing uncontrollably, I peeled into the aisle and headed for the back of the church with my friend right behind me. Needless to say, I never went to church with that punctual family again.

Written by Michael Ambrosio
Copyright 2002

Michael Ambrosio is author of the I Don't series of children's picture books (ages 4-8) and the upcoming Destiny series of chapter books (ages 8-12). He makes author appearances at Sacramento area elementary schools and lives in Folsom, California with his wife and five children and still coaches and plays soccer. For more info, visit www.lionxpublishing.com