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Martin Jr. cautiously eyed the spider. If he
was a dragon fly, ain’t no way he’d get caught.
Lena gathered her
children around her out in front of the house like she was gathering up her
skirts.
“Children, I want to tell you I love you and the Lord loves
you. Now, we a-going to pray and ‘spect you to do some praying. Pray for
your daddy also. Martin, baby, come here and love your mama a bit. You just
don’t know how much I love you all, do you?”
“Mamma, I love
you,” Lily said.
Dawn started crying. “I could never live without
you, mamma.”
“Come on now,” Lena cried back.
“Ain’t no time for crying, just loving ‘fore we go. Come here,
baby,” Lena reached over the head of Dawn who had her face in her
mother’s good Sunday dress. She touched Martin Jr.’s hand.
The
heat was already beginning to swelter. Martin Jr. looked into the sky, at the
deep blue sky that went on and on. He was angry, and deep inside he was also
angry at G,d for his father. But his mother touched him and deep, deep inside,
he wanted to fall next to his younger sister Dawn at his mother’s hand. He
closed his eyes when she touched his cheek.
Martin Jr. leaned over and
kissed his mother. “It’ll be getting hot on the way up,” was all
that he could muster.
The First Savior’s Baptist Church was four miles
from the Williams’s family house. It was a white wooden structure with a
tall steeple in front that raised up the Cross of the Lord high above the
rolling terrain, setting the church up on a hill overlooking miles of valley.
The parking lot was made of loose gravel. Three large Oaks stood over the
church on one side. Cars parked at strange angles trying to fit underneath the
trees for their shade like huddled beetles, and church goers seemed not to
stray too far from the boughs until it was time for services to begin.
Inside, Martin Jr. listened quietly. The service was full and the singing was
loud and full of faith and G,d. The choir fanned themselves as they sang.
People stood and prayed and cried for their savior and to re-affirm their
faith.
“Sunday is a time for G,d and the Lord Jesus,” the
preacher shouted, “but everyday is a time for G,d and the Lord, and he
hears and sees you, and counts you when you sit in His house of holy
worship.”