1987 and 1988:
“If I Baptize you,” the preacher said, “you’ll be able to go to the
Kingdom of Christ. You’ll be washed in the river of suffering, son and you’ll
go by the deep river of life. Do you want that?”
1989: The boy in the river glanced at the old man quickly and
raised his fist. “Believe Jesus of the devil!” he cried, “Testify to one or the
other!”
1990: The same blood that makes this River red, made that leper
clean, made that blind man stare, made that dead man leap! You people with
trouble,” he cried, “lay it in that River of Blood, lay in it that River of
Pain, and watch it move away toward the Kingdom of Christ.”
1991: He gave one low cry of pain and indignation. Then he heard a
shout and turned his head and saw something like a giant pig bounding after
him, shaking a red and white club and shouting. He plunged under once and this
time, the waiting current caught him like a long gentle hand and pulled him
swiftly forward and down. For an instant he was overcome with surprise: then
since he was moving quickly and knew that he was getting somewhere, all his
fury and fear left him.
1992: “It it’s this River of Life you want to lay your pain in,
then come up,” the preacher said, “and lay your sorrow here. But don’t be
thinking this is the last of it because this old red river don’t end here.
1993: Then he lifted his head and arms and shouted, “Listen to
what I got to say, you people! There ain’t but one river and that’s the River
of Life, made out of Jesus’ Blood. That’s the river you have to lay your pain
in, in the River of Faith, in the River of Life, in the River of Lover, in the
rich red river of Jesus’ Blood, you people!”
1994: “I know from my own self-experience,” a woman’s mysterious
voice called from the knot of people, “I know from it that this preacher can
heal. My eyes have been opened! I testify to Jesus!”
1995: He shut his eye and heard her voice from a long way away, as
if he were under the river and she on top of it. She shook his shoulder.
“Harry,” she said, leaning down and putting her mouth to his ear, “tell me what
he said.” She pulled him into a sitting position and he felt as if he had been
drawn up from under the river. “Tell me,” she whispered and her bitter breath
covered his face.
1996: “Yes,” the child said, and thought, I won’t go back to the
apartment then, I’ll go under the river.
1997: He held him under while he said the words of Baptism and
then he jerked him up again and looked sternly at the gasping child. Bevel’s
eyes were dark and dilated. “You count now,” the preacher said, “You didn’t
even count before.”
1998: His shoes were still damp and he began to think about the
river. Very slowly, his expression changed as if he were gradually seeing
appear what he didn’t know he’d been looking for. Then all of a sudden he knew
what he wanted to do.
1999: his voice grew soft and musical. “All the rivers come from
that one River and go back to it like if was the ocean sea and it your believe,
you can lay your pain in that River and get rid of it because that’s the River
that was made to carry sin. It’s a River full of pain itself, pain itself,
moving toward the Kingdom of Christ, to be washed away, slow, you people, slow
as this here old red water river round my feet.
2000: He intended not to fool with preachers any more but to
Baptize himself and to keep on going this time until he found the Kingdom of
Christ in the river. He didn’t mean to waste any more time. He put his head
under the water at once and pushed forward.
2001: “I seen you cure a woman oncet!” a sudden high voice shouted
from the hump of people. “Seen that woman git up and walk out straight where
she had limped in!”
2002: “This belonged to my great grandmamma. I wouldn’t part with
it for nothing on earth.” And every word of it the gospel truth.” She turned
the next page and read him the name: “The Life of Jesus Christ for Readers
Under Twelve.” Then she read him the book.
2003: “If you ain’t come for Jesus, you ain’t come for me. If you
just come to see can you leave your pain in the river, you ain’t come for
Jesus. You can’t leave your pain in the river,” he said. “I never told nobody
that.” He stopped and looked down at his knees.
2004: “Tuesday I was in Fortune Lake, next day in Ideal, Friday me
and my wife drove to Lulawillow to see a sick man there. Them people didn’t see
no healing, “he said and his face burned redder for a second. “I never said
they would.”
2005: This old red
suffering stream des on, you people, slow to the Kingdom of Christ. This old
red river is good to Baptize in, good to lay your faith in, good to lay your
pain in, but it ain’t this muddy water here that saves you.”
