Andrew Mayden

By Andrew Mayden

I was raised Catholic, and every Sunday we would go to church. Most of the time we would drive, but the church was so close that when the weather was nice sometimes we would walk. On these rare occasions I enjoyed the walk more than the service.

We had Church Missiles, books containing the hymns and weekly Bible readings. What’s more, these lean texts came in pairs. There were two soft cover books inside one hard backed folder.

The reason I’m mentioning these details is to tell you what I did during my time in Church. I would sneak a novel in and read. I remember reading Splinter of the Mind’s Eye by Allen Dean Foster, Gods of Xuma by David J. Lake, and Exiles of Colsec by Douglas Hill, among others.

One of the ladies that attended the church on a regular basis sat in the pew behind us some Sundays. She saw me crack open a novel and hide it between the two little hymnals. The best part (and the part I will never forget) is that she decided not to tell my parents! See, she worked at the public library and loved seeing a young boy reading. I guess most kids sneaked in Game Boys and things like that (you know, the way we played video games back in the day before cell phones.)

Years later Mom and Dad caught me. They started patting me down before Church like I was a common criminal, but I had already learned my lesson: go ahead and break the rules, just don’t be pedestrian about it!