Send Me Down a Miracle (8 page)

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.

Then came a real surprise. Sharalee stood up behind me with her face just running with tears, and she grabbed hold of my shoulders and started her wailing.

"Lord, I know it's me you're looking for. I have coveted what my best friend has. I have cursed You for making her skinny, all excepting her toes, and for making me so fat and for giving me a skinny mama who hates me. I'm ready, Lord, 'cause it seems to me I'm already burning right here on earth."

Sharalee's fingernails were digging into my bare shoulders and I could feel her warm tears dropping onto my skin.

"Lord, I am ready. I have been evil in my thoughts. I have hated my best friend and cursed You and I've not honored my mother and I eat too much."

Sharalee let go of my back and threw herself all hysterical into her mama's lap.

Daddy had finished spitting out bits of his sermon and was now shouting something about confession being good for the soul, but—and again his words were lost in more hysterical confessions and wailings and the gnashing of teeth.

It wasn't until folks were getting worn out with their sins and things started to quiet down that we heard this tiny pinging tune. Everybody hushed to listen. It sounded like a little toy organ and everybody looked to Miss Tuney Mae to see if she was making the music, but I knew they wouldn't find it there.

I looked down, noticing for the first time what socks I'd put on during my screaming fit, a pair of the Christmas socks Mama had bought.

I stood and held my foot up to Daddy, feeling sure my face was as red as the socks.

"They won't turn off," I said. Daddy was standing there with his face an explosion of purple fury.