Grace and Boo were holding hands and leaning back in the pew. They were staring up at the ceiling like they figured any minute they would be the next to go.
I was keeping a lookout for Adrienne and was starting to get worried. In a way I was hoping she wouldn't show. I knew Daddy wasn't going to be in the best mood about all this Rapture talk and Jesus chair stuff, but just as Miss Tuney Mae played her last note, in she walked.
She was wearing a fantastic pair of silky flowing pants and some sleeveless flowing top and a big, big straw hat. Looking the way she did, and coming in after the organ, made it seem almost as if she had timed it for a grand entrance. The whole congregation went dead quiet. She stood in the back of the church and looked over all the faces staring at her, then turned her head left, then right. She was looking for something. Then I realized that something was me, and I knew I had to stand up and wave, maybe even call out, if she was going to see me.
I didn't want to stand up and have everybody look at me. I was afraid Daddy would catch me.
I saw the door open at the front of the church, and then in glided Daddy. He stopped as soon as he saw what was going on in the back. I sank lower into my seat, praying Adrienne hadn't caught sight of me, but then my conscience had to go and quote Scripture at me, saying, "But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."
I thought about how the apostle Peter denied knowing Jesus just before Christ was forced to haul his heavy cross up Calvary Hill. I couldn't live with myself if I thought I would have been one of the people who betrayed Jesus way back then, and wasn't this the same thing? If I betrayed Adrienne, wouldn't it be like I was denying that she saw Jesus?
I gave my father a quick look and saw that he was still looking at the back of the church, so I stood up and waved. Adrienne didn't see me. She was making her way down the aisle, and as she passed the pews, folks were reaching out and touching her, her shoulder or her wrist or a piece of her silk pants, as if she were Jesus Himself making His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Some of the folks were even whispering things to her, but I couldn't tell what until I heard Mr. Day behind me asking her to pray for his son, Boo. Then Mrs. Marshall lunged forward, reaching out over Sharalee and Mr. Marshall and grabbing Adrienne's hand. "Pray for my Sharalee," she said. "Pray that she loses her weight." Adrienne nodded and smiled, but her shoulders were all hiked up, her face was all white, and her mouth fell back into this skinny straight line with her lips pressed hard as if she were trying to keep a fly from buzzing in. That's when I wondered if she regretted ever having seen Jesus. Was it worth that time of wonderfulness to have to put up with everybody grabbing at you?
I said her name, and when she turned toward me and saw who it was, her shoulders relaxed and she really smiled.
I held out a fan to her. She took it and sat down next to me. Then she leaned toward me and whispered, "I know I'm late. People kept stopping by wanting to see the chair."
Miss Tuney Mae started playing her intro to "Now to Heaven Our Prayer Ascending," and Daddy, looking all hot in the face like he had already delivered his sermon, strode across the front of the sanctuary and stopped directly in front of me and Adrienne. Adrienne gave my hand a squeeze, and then we all stood up to sing.
Daddy sang the first line real loud and looked straight at Adrienne. His one eyebrow was raised, making him look strict and disapproving. I glanced sideways at Adrienne, but all I saw was straw hat.
The whole time we were singing. Daddy was giving me and Adrienne the hairy eyeball, and when we sang the line in the fourth verse "Every foe at length subduing, God speed the right," Daddy raised his head up and then looked way down at just Adrienne through his glasses, and it was as if he was trying to warn her, or challenge her, or something.
The whole thing made me go all shivery, and when we sat down I snuggled in next to Boo real good and kept my fan on my lap.
The rest of the service went as usual until we came to the sermon, which, for a change, everybody seemed to be looking forward to. There were all kinds of rustlings and settlingins going on behind me as Daddy took off his glasses and said a quick prayer about the coming sermon. Then he began by reading from the Book of Jeremiah, and right away the atmosphere changed. It was just like that calm-before-the-storm thing. It was as if the sky had gone all greenish black and the earth was standing still, tense, just waiting for all that electricity to start zinging around.
Daddy began, "This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.'"
9
"Are you ready—for the hand—of God?" Daddy shouted down at us from his pulpit. "Are you?" He glared at the folks on his left.
"Are you?" He glared at the folks on his right.
"Are you?" He pointed at Adrienne for a good twenty seconds, saying nothing more.
Then he pushed his glasses up higher on his nose and glared out at the whole congregation.
"We have here today a visitor. A visitor who has claimed she has seen—Jesus. A sinner who has claimed Jesus has come to her! To her!
"And this town can hardly control itself. Right away we all believe. Right away we're talking Rapture.
"Rapture!
"Let us look at what the Bible says about the Rapture. In the Book of Matthew, Jesus' disciples ask Him directly—saying in chapter twenty-four, verse three, 'Tell us,' they said, 'when will this happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?'
"And what did Jesus say to them? What was the first thing Jesus said to them? He said, 'Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name claiming, I am the Christ, and will deceive many.'
"Watch out—he says. Watch out that no one deceives you!
"Yes. Whenever we start looking for signs of Christ's coming we are easily deceived by false prophets. And here we have before us today just such a prophet tricking folks with signs of spiritual power and authority. Do not be fooled by this sinner, this Antichrist!"
Daddy paused in his shouting and wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. I took the time to glance at Adrienne and saw her sitting as straight and stiff as a deacon's bench. She was clutching her fan and glaring straight at Daddy, not blinking.
Daddy glanced down at his notes and, after a quick feel of his hairpiece, started again, only quieter, whispering almost.
"When we have a false prophet bearing false witness, teaching loose morals, gathering followers to her, we see the breeding of a disease that eats away at the fiber of this church and our families, until there is total destruction." His voice started to get louder again. "No longer are we focused on Christ. No longer do we seek to love our neighbor, to love God.
"Do not look for special signs. Look at Christ.
"Already you people are charging over to Miss Dabney's house. Yes, I know all about it. Already you are worshiping what you believe is an image of Christ. A chair!
"The Bible tells us that the Antichrist will set up an image of himself and order everyone to worship it. This is an abomination, a mockery! My brothers and sisters, if you have to be told it is Jesus who has come, it—is—not—Her"
Daddy pounded out the last four words, his fist beating the Bible lying open in front of him.
"This is not the Rapture. Jesus Christ is no closer to you in Miss Dabney's house than He is anywhere else. If you want to communicate with the Lord, you must do so in prayer and deed! Would Christ choose a prophet who lives in sin with her lover?"
"No. Praise the Lord!" came the voices behind me.
"Would Christ choose a prophet who knows nothing of His ways?"
"No, Lord, no! Praise the Lord!" Again the voices, and I wanted to join them. Daddy was right.
But then I got a peek at Adrienne again, her face a picture of shock and disbelief, and I didn't know anymore.
"Matthew twenty-four, verses fifteen through nineteen, says,
'So when you see standing in the holy place, the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak.'"
Daddy looked up from his Bible and leaned forward over the pulpit.
"Therefore, I say to you, brothers and sisters assembled here today, when Miss Adrienne Dabney proclaims that Christ has come and is waiting for you in her living room, flee! Flee to the mountains!"
The voices behind me called out, "Amen!"
"I ask you, if the Rapture is at hand, if the Lord is about to reach down from the sky and pluck the faithful up to the heavens, will you be chosen? Have you done good works here on earth? Have you loved God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your body? For surely it is more important for us to be ready, anytime, anywhere, than it is to know when the Rapture will happen. It is he who endures to the end who will be saved.
"Are you ready—for the hand—of God?"
Daddy pulled back from the pulpit and lifted his arms. "'May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us, and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.' Amen, and Amen."
"Amen, praise the Lord!" we all shouted.
Miss Tuney Mae began the intro for the closing hymn and I could hear all kinds of shuffling going on around me. Then, just as we were about to stand up and sing, Adrienne sprang from her seat and without slipping on her sandals rushed up the three steps leading to the pulpit. She turned around to face us and held up her hands. "Wait!" she said.
I saw those dirty bare feet and I felt my face go all hot.
Miss Tuney Mae stopped playing and looked to Daddy to see what she should do. Daddy stepped forward and took ahold of Adrienne's elbow. "Now is not the time for speeches. This is a Sunday-morning worship service, not an open forum."
"I understand that, Able, but you have judged me and judged my motives, and I think it is only fair that I have a chance to defend myself, even if this is a worship service." Adrienne wriggled away from Daddy, crossed her arms, and stood with her feet spread a good two feet apart, looking like she was preparing to have a sit-in or something if he wouldn't let her talk.
"You had your say yesterday," Daddy said, more to the congregation than to Adrienne.
"Aw, let the girlie talk, Able," Old Higgs said.
"Did you not listen to what I said?" Daddy's eyes practically bulged out through his glasses.
Then from the back of the church came a voice, scratchy but strong. I turned around, and so did everyone else. There, still sober and still in his muddy gardening pants, stood Mad Joe.
"Proverbs three, verses twenty-nine and thirty," he said. Then he paused and nodded to a couple of folks sitting in the back. "'Do not plot harm against your neighbor who lives trustfully near you. Do not accuse a man for no reason when he has done you no harm.'"
Everyone turned back to Daddy to see what he would do next, and I swanee it was like we were watching a tennis volley—only, before Daddy could react, Adrienne started talking.
"Look, I didn't come here to your town, my mother's hometown, and my birthplace, to stir up any trouble. I came here for my art. My art, and that's all."
Adrienne lifted her chin at us, defying anyone to say that that wasn't why she came. No one said anything. I don't think anyone was even breathing. I know I wasn't.
"I told you people about what I saw because I felt I had to. Yesterday I told you that after it happened, after the visions, I wondered why it had happened and how I was supposed to change and what I was supposed to do about it. Well, the only clear message I've had is that I'm to tell you about it." Adrienne stared off into one corner of the room. "I felt such joy after the first two visions. I felt at peace and contented, and I thought these were my own personal visions. Something I would keep to myself." She looked back down at us. "But then I had the third vision, and I knew that you all had to be told. It wasn't like the other two. It's almost as if Jesus were showing me in stages what it is He wanted to say to me, to all of us. That first vision was just this feeling, this seeing and knowing, more than I've ever known anything, that God is love, pure love, pure light."
"Amen! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!" Folks were shouting all around me.
"Then, in the second vision, I saw the whole world at once in just a split second. I saw it without seeing." Adrienne flapped her arms down at her sides and shook her head. "I know I'm not making any sense. I don't know—I haven't the right words—there are no words for what I saw and how it happened. It's as if I didn't see anything, but in my mind somehow I have an image of what I did see. There it was, the whole world, in darkness and in light, and I saw that the love that Jesus showed me before covered all the earth, all of it, every corner, every person."
"Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!"
"And this love—" She closed her eyes and held her face toward the ceiling. "This love is so great and so strong and so perfect that nothing, nothing that we feel comes anywhere dose to the love Christ showed me He has for this world."
"Hallelujah, yes sir, praise the Lord!" I recognized Mad Joe's voice.
"And I knew all this, I saw all this, and felt it all in a flash of light, in the merest fraction of a second." Adrienne opened her eyes and there were tears in them. She held out her hands toward us as though she wanted to touch us and hold us, maybe rock us in her arms.
She dropped her arms to her sides. "Then I had the third vision. Again, I didn't know what I saw until after I had seen and the images were there in my mind, clear as day.
"I saw this place, this town, and as before, it was covered in the light and love of God. It was Casper. I knew it was Casper. I don't know how I knew. I didn't see the welcome sign, or the Dooleys' store, or this church, or the train tracks—I just knew. And I knew there were people. All of you people were there, and it was good. I felt warm and safe. But then I noticed this black spot in one corner of the town. This one black spot, and it began to spread, growing bigger and darker. It spread and spread until it covered the whole view, until the whole town was in darkness. And I knew this darkness was like a blackened soul, cold and evil."
"Lord have mercy!"
"Then there was this crack of light coming from a break in the ground. The ground was splitting open and this light coming from below was burning away the edges of darkness like it was a piece of charred paper. Only it wasn't a good light, it wasn't God's light. It was light being tossed by the flames that reached up from the ground, and like a thousand fiery fingers it caught hold of someone's leg and pulled that someone under. Then the ground closed up and the flames went away and the light of God seeped back over the town, and I could see Casper again, all lit up except for one spot that remained dark and cold."
I heard Mad Joe call out like he was in some kind of pain, and I turned to see that he had fallen to his knees and, with his hands together in prayer, he was holding his face up to the ceiling.
"It all happened in a flash," Adrienne said.
I turned back around and caught sight of Daddy still standing next to the pulpit, his fearsome expression looking like it had been freeze-dried on his face.
Adrienne looked over at Daddy. "Now, I've had my say. I've done what I was supposed to do. You can call me a liar, or the Antichrist, or whatever you want. I've said what I believe I was supposed to say."
She stepped down from the altar, but instead of joining me, she strode barefoot down the aisle, her frizzy head held high.
Mad Joe was still at the back of the church, frozen in a state of prayerfulness.
Then Boo jumped up from his seat and turned toward Adrienne's retreating back. "It's me! That somebody in the clutches of the flames of hell is mel Dear Lord!"
Adrienne stopped and turned to face him with this look of surprise.
/> "It's because of the okra," he wailed. "It's because I don't like one of God's gifts and I refuse my okra when there are so many starving people in the world."
Mr. Day stood up and leaned forward over the pew in front of him. "Shh, Boo. God wouldn't—"
Boo shouted over his father's words. "I told Mama that that slimy stuff inside the okra was God spitting saliva, and that He was wrapping it up in his long, green, hairy snot, and sending it down to earth as food. Dear Lord, don't take me! Forgive me. I love okra. I love okra! It is Your precious gift of food."
Then Old Higgs stood up and started in right on top of Boo's wailing. I saw Daddy trying to say something, but Old Higgs was determined to out-shout him. Daddy took a few steps back so that he was behind the pulpit. He gripped at its edges and bent his head forward over his Bible and listened to Old Higgs's confession.
"Dear Lord, forgive me. I know it's me You're sending to burn in hell's fiery blaze. I'm the mystery person responsible for the Macy dog incident. And I knew he weren't no rabbit when I shot his leg off, neither, but—shoot!—he was gitting after my chickens like they were ... Well, anyways, dear Lord, forgive me my sins."
Old Higgs started moaning then, and Daddy tried again to speak, striding back and forth across the platform and shouting about false prophets and the Antichrist.
But then Miss Tuney Mae crashed her fingers down on the organ and played a couple of ear-banging chords. Her head popped up from behind the instrument and she called out, "Lord have mercy upon my soul! I know Satan has come to take me for spreading untruths about folks in my family and this here town. Lord, I am ready for death; but, Lord, make my stay in the underworld a short one, for You have created me as one of Your children who cannot tolerate heat for long periods of time. Forgive me, Lord, all my sins!"
Daddy was shouting out his sermon again. He stood at the edge of the platform, his arms jerking out in front of him, trying to make his point. Spit was flying out of his mouth, but folks were getting hysterical with guilt, and the shouting and confessions rose up out of their mouths, one on top of the other, like a rush of angry waves thrashing their sins and secrets against the shore.