• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 306 0

gentle, Will Rogers speaking style, deferential and friendly. I guessed right away that Cassie wore the balls in this family. She was a prototypical southern power-housewife, dressed in an aggressive red permanent-press pantsuit (the southern housewife version of a NASCAR racing outfit) over a garish multicolored blouse that hung around her sun-splotched, sagging neck—which incidentally featured a Star of David pendant, a brazen and conspicuous symbol of her corporate loyalty to the church. Her eyes were keen bird-of-prey slits; seated as the group was for most of the night in a circle, her chair was just a shade behind Richard’s, and from that vantage point she kept a careful eye on the whole proceeding. In discussions about scripture, she would jump in and have the final word.

There were about twenty others there in Richard and Cassie’s sunken living room, occupying a ring of folding chairs. Laurie had kept one open for me next to hers. I made my way around and took my seat. Dr. Hiroshi and his elderly, kindly wife, Frances, were on my other side. We exchanged a few niceties, and then suddenly a short, squat man, seated behind and to the left of me and wearing an awkward parted haircut that would have looked right in a 1987 Members Only commercial, began strumming an acoustic guitar.

“That’s Reggie,” whispered Laurie. “He does the music around here.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Okay, everyone,” Reggie said. “Now, I want the men to stand up for their parts and sit down when they’re done. Women, you stand up for your parts, same thing.”

“What parts?” I whispered to Laurie.

“I don’t know, honey,” she said.

Reggie hit a chord and stood up. All the men followed.

“I’ve been re-deeeeemed!” he sang.

We sat down. The women stood up and repeated. I’ve been redeeeeemed!

Reggie stood up again. “By the blood of the lamb!”

By the blood of the lamb!

They went on singing. It was the kind of song you could almost sing without knowing—you get a hint at the beginning, and you’re off:

I’ve been redeemed, I’ve been redeemed

By the blood of the lamb, by the blood of the lamb

I’ve been redeemed by the blood of the lamb

I’m filled with the Holy Ghost I am

All my sins are washed away, I’ve been redeemed.

And I went down, and I went down

To the river to pray, to the river to pray

And I went down, and I went down

To the river to pray, to the river to pray

And I went down to the river to pray

I felt so good that I stayed all day

All my sins are washed away, I’ve been redeemed.

By then everyone was huffing and puffing from all the standing up and sitting down, but we went on:

“And that’s not all,” sang Dr. Hiroshi with the rest of the men, smiling at me.

And that’s not all! sang the women.

“There’s more besides!” sang the men.

There’s more besides!

I figured I had it by then. I looked at the doctor and sang:

And that’s not all, there’s more besides

I’ve been to the river and I’ve been baptized

All my sins are washed away, I’ve been redeemed.

The doctor hit the last note—the Sha Na Na bass ending:

I’ve…been…re-deeeemed.

Everybody clapped and cheered. It was a pretty song, a song for kids—and these almost-elderly people were enjoying it like children. Once they all caught their breath, some shook hands or even hugged.

It was a weird scene, watching these empty-nest old parents moved near to tears by this children’s song. But it wasn’t their own kids they were remembering; it was their own childhoods. The church is a place where you can walk in and close your eyes and all the complex and inscrutable troubles of adult life are gone for a time. But you have to be careful to keep your eyes closed, because if you open them, what you’ll see all around you are sad, middle-aged people with brittle hair and long faces, faces as old as your own, looking weary from that crooked road that God keeps promising will someday be made straight and trying to wish the world away with a children’s song. Of course, if they all wish together, the wish comes true for a while.

At the end of each song the