i i alem RRR Ithe group to totter toward the door. As Martha made herway down the aisle to a pew in front so she could be sure ofbeing near the Prophet, calls of ~oLo Sister Jones? andoGlad you could come, Sister Jones? surrounded her oneither side. She smiled slightly and nodded at those manyfamiliar faces and finally stopped next to the second row ofbenches on her right. Because of her age, the youngerwomen often deferred to her, and a middle aged womanmoved in to give her an aisle seat.As she looked about, Martha saw a good number ofPeople who she did not know. People came from fortymiles away to hear the Prophet. This revival had been inProgress for three days, with meetings held every night, andit was to run for three more days before moving on toanother town. Because of OlivaTs illness, Martha had notattended any of the meetings, but had sat home with hergranddaughter putting mustard plasters on her chest andfeeding her clove tea to try to stop the deep cough. Butnothing had worked, and Martha had realized, even if thechildren had not, that she would have to go to a highersource.She reached into a osecret compartment? in hertattered brown purse to see if the four dollars were stillthere. Yes... there they were, she thought as her knarledfingers felt the four distinct crumpled balls. This was thelast money in the house till pay day. She would have to beCareful. She looked around again and answered a oTLoSister JonesT with a strained smile as she quickly closed thePurse and clutched it in her lap.On the stage she saw the chief of police, who was thePastor of the congregation and had arranged for the revivalto take place there. On account of a Klan threat, he hadCome to the church with three officers during a revivalthree years before and had been converted. When the oldPreacher had died, the congregation had asked him to takeCharge. He was the only white man in the state to be thehead of an all black church, and only his position as chief,Which miraculously he had been able to hang on to despiteBS nunity pressures, had kept him free of threats from theOcal Klan. Now, he was sitting on the platform in the" of two Negro deacons waving his right arm leadinghe singing of ~Precious Lord.TAs the strains of the hymn filled the church Martha" that it was already almost completely filled, theen con sisting primarily of fortyish plus womenoy a number of six-tyish plus men. There were perhapsta People under thirty, except for the small children thatNg tightly to their mothers and gazed about with largeUNsure eyes.= Martha straightened her old hat, a black silk bowl that". her gray hair and had plastic flowers on the rightcatia of the women wore hats of this type, some hada = instead of flowers. some held tambourines, othersca small arcs of hot air against their shining black faces=. Paper fans that had a picture of Jesus on one side andSeba eanlaota for oCrichTs Auto PartsTT on the other.aby a especially noticed the condition of the older people,ag uman scarecrows with arms the thickness of an auto= aust pipe and protruding veins that gave the impressionPencils having been pushed through the skin.CCasionally a wrinkled squash of a face would gaze back ather and bear two sets of gums in recognition. Lacking hair,the old men gave an even more corpse-like appearance. Butshe did not find fault with these things --she saw much thesame when she looked into a mirror or at a picture of herdead husband.As the hymn ended voices could be heard from theback of the church: ~~HeTs hereTT: craning necks, still fans,upturned faces. She turned and saw the Prophet. He waswalking down the aisle toward the dias. Perhaps fifty yearsold, he wore a belted trenchcoat with the collar turned up,black trousers with a knife sharp crease , and black shoespolished to a mirror finish. Deep blue eyes shone out abovea hook nose set in the center of a smooth, intelligent, whiteface, which was surrounded by a full head of snow whitehair. As he walked down the aisle, he smiled at variouspeople who he recognized from other towns, otherchurches. He walked up to the dias, took off his coat,whispered something in the police chiefTs ear, and sat down.Knowing that the congregation had all come to see theProphet, the chief did not take charge of the servicehimself.oNow I'd like to introduce the Prophet,?T he saidstanding behind the lectern. ooY~all know him; y~all knowthat our Lord speaks through him. ITve done some checkingon this man, and be lieve me heTs a real man of God. Solisten close.?THe sat down and the Prophet got up on the dias.Martha watched him with hawk eyes, though every timesomeone coughed her thoughts reverted to Oliva lying inbed, her chest wracked with coughs.oHello friends,? he said with an ingratiating smile.oIt's nice to see so many familiar faces in the crowd.?He pointed to a few people in the crowd to show thathe recognized them. Those chosen for this specialrecognition sat a bit taller and remained slightly aloofbasking in the stares that they knew were being leveled atthem.oLet's begin with ~I Cried and He Delivered Me,T hesaid glancing back at the piano player. A chord was struck,and over two hundred voices sang out. | cried and Hedelivered me, Lord | cried and He delivered me, Lord |cried and He delivered me, He delivered my poor soul.A short, squat woman in front of Martha in the frontrow got up and began beating a tambourine againstthe heel of her hand. As verse was added to verse,people about the church stood and began clappingtheir hands to the quickening rhythm; the man on thedrums beat to the convulsive cadences that filled theroom.Now people began to stamp their feet. Anextremely black woman wearing a white dress was outin the aisle doing a jig while slapping her right handagainst her haunch. Martha was standing now also,drumming on the pew in front of her and moving upand down like an aged pile driver, the yellow and redplastic flowers dancing up and down on her hat as shesang and jumped to the spasmodic beat now made upof the Prophet's shouts, the pianoTs occasionally heardchords, the hangling tambourines, the beating drums,the clapping of dozens of pairs of hands, and the