The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington [108]
Brother Stapleton and his sister remained with the Ingledews thereafter, because it was unheard of for anybody not to say “Stay more,” and Salina went on saying it. Each night Sirena crept into bed with the Ingledew boys without waking them; each day they went on ignoring her existence. Although the deacons were talking about burning Brother Stapleton, everybody else was impatient to view another of his movies, and their impatience made their sourhours ever sourer, so that in the end they prevailed, and prevailed upon Brother Stapleton the following Sabbath to give them another picture show. This time he told them the passionate and touching story of the prophet Hosea and his marriage to the prostitute Gomer, whom he continued to love despite her infidelities, and whom he sold into bondage and then redeemed from bondage and carried away to the desert to remove her from temptation and have her for his own. The deacons were convinced that there was one scene toward the end, where Hosea and Gomer were lying together behind a sand dune in the desert, when the intercourse was so explicit you could even see their genitals, but the deacons were so enthralled that they did not protest, until the sermon was over and the rest of the congregation had departed, when they accosted Brother Stapleton, and one of the deacons, Seth Chism, said to him, “Pastor, was I jist imaginin things, or didn’t that there Hosea actually commence to shaggin his wife in that part toward the end in the desert?”
“A man sees what he wants to see,” Brother Stapleton replied.
“A man, yeah,” Brother Chism said, “but what about all the womenfolk and childreng? It aint fitten to show things like that to their innocent eyes.”
“No eyes is innocent,” the minister replied.
Through the rest of that bitterly cold winter, the people of Stay More lived from one Sunday to the next, suffering intolerable sourhours in between, just to go to Brother Stapleton’s cinema. He showed the romantic stories of Abraham and Sarah, of David and Bathsheba, of Jacob and Rachel, of Ruth and Boaz, even the incestuous story of Amnon and his half-sister Tamar. Each of the Ingledew brothers was aroused by these shows, and each of them had private daydreams of being able to do that with that pretty redhead Sirena, but each of them knew that it was impossible because they couldn’t even get up the nerve to look at her. Sirena continued, unbeknownst, sleeping with them. One morning she awakened before daylight to discover that the brother next to her had a risen root, although he was still asleep and mildly snoring. She thought that was amazing: getting a serviceable dinger while sleeping. She also thought it was exciting. She lifted his nightshirt and her nightdress, and climbed aboard. He never woke. She wondered which one of the four brothers he was; she couldn’t see a thing. She wondered what he would think if he woke. She wondered how vigorous she could be without waking him. She was very vigorous, and at the end she stuffed her fist into her mouth to stifle her sound. Before leaving the room she gave his shoulder a gentle shake and whispered into his ear, “Which one are you? What’s your name?” “Nmpth,” he responded. “What’s your name?” she said again. “John,” he said without ever fully waking.
Before the start of each of Brother Stapleton’s shows, one of the deacons would request, “Show us a pitcher of heaven, Preacher!” or one of the other deacons would request, “Show us pitchers of hell!” but Brother Stapleton could not show them heaven or hell because he did not believe in them. He could, however, show them paradise, and he told them the exquisitely connubial story of Adam and Eve, depicting Eden as the setting for their dramatic romance and temptation and fall. The congregation viewed the enchanting