Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The By-pass

2000; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 33; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/45226672

1554-9631

Lewis Horne,

The By-pass Lewis HomeIf I looked up the road from the irrigation ditch, I could see the churchhouse bumping stiff and dark against the sunset's blaze."The old churchhouse," people called it now."The old churchhouse," said Reuben Crandall, standing beside me on the bridge.His troubled feelings about the matter rumbled with his words."My old man helped build it," he said."It breaks my heart to see it.""It breaks your heart?"I said."It breaks my heart," he said."You think I don't got me a heart?"Reuben hadn't been in any churchhouse, old or new, since I could remember.But he had his point.Now that the new one was finished for use, carpeted and painted, spie and span for worship, the wrecking machines were taking on the old building tomorrow.After everything was cleaned away, there'd be small chance the new steeple was tall enough for us to see it from where we stood.The new churchhouse was not two stories high with a peaked roof over its red brick walls and a pile of steps to climb to the whitewashed double doors in front.Its steeple was skinny as Reuben's arm while the old one didn't have a steeple at all.But we could see its roof."People got no right to make fun of my religion," he said."Since when were you religious?""It's the making fun.""Not making fun of your religion, Reuben.We're just getting a new churchhouse.You know how hard it was for Hattie Belle Johnson to climb those steps.We're making it easier for her and Tom Sirrine and the oldtimers.We're getting a new electric organ in place of that old pump affair.We're getting more classrooms and a new gymnasium.People kept stumbling on the cracked concrete of the basketball court out back.We'll have air-conditioning."But I had a heart, too, and it didn't beat strong behind my words.Reuben couldn't place every creak in the floorboards the way I could.He didn't know you had to ease the swinging doors to the foyer shut behind you or you'd set a clatter.He didn't know the ratchet of the front overhead fan.