The old church wasn't really a church any more, at least most of the time.  It had been founded as a Methodist church about a hundred years ago, but then the congregation outgrew it as the neighborhood changed, so a bigger one had been built a block away.

 The Methodists had kept it up for their thrift shop and meetings and mission work and so on.  But then the neighborhood slowly changed again, so that all of that was moved into the new - well, newer - church.

 So the building was sold at a nominal price to a community group that sort of took it full circle.  The mission work was now AA meetings at night and an addiction clinic on two weekdays with a baby and prenatal clinic the other days.  An independent evangelical group held services on Sunday afternoon in one side room.

 Tonight the main hall had a dance, a fund-raiser for the community group, with a few of the century-old pew benches around the inside walls.

 Martin Person had not been sure if going to the dance was a good idea or not.  On the one hand, he would only know a few people there, if any.  On the other, he might find one or more whom he wanted to get to know better.