In Sunday School today Miss Hooker said<\/span>\u00a0 into my scrambled eggs. I can’t stop and<\/span>\u00a0 wants you to be happy, Mother says. Right<\/span>\u00a0 asleep. There’s nothing inside me but night<\/span>\u00a0 resurrected. And I’m going to touch<\/span>\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Gale Acuff In Sunday School today Miss Hooker said\u00a0that no man knows when he’s going to die\u00a0so he’d better be prepared. I slogged home\u00a0and slouched into the kitchen and sat down\u00a0at the table for lunch, bacon and eggs\u00a0and grape Tang, and\u00a0Sanka\u00a0and Lucky Strikes\u00a0for my parents, the Sunday newspaper\u00a0between them on the other side. How Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-92","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":550,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/92\/revisions\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/span>that no man knows when he’s going to die<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>so he’d better be prepared. I slogged home<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>and slouched into the kitchen and sat down<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>at the table for lunch, bacon and eggs<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>and grape Tang, and\u00a0<\/span>Sanka<\/span>\u00a0and Lucky Strikes<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>for my parents, the Sunday newspaper<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>between them on the other side. How was<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>church today, Father asked, without looking<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n\n
<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\nWhat did you learn today? I start to cry\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
\n
<\/span>my sobs leap to howls. What the Hell is wrong,<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>asks Father.\u202fI think he’s looking now but<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>I don’t look back. What’s the matter,\u00a0<\/span>Honey,<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>Mother asks. I find my napkin and blow<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>my nose. I need to wipe my eyes but I<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>should’ve done that first and I can’t see to<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>find another napkin. Oh, I don’t know,<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>I wail–I just feel bad, I guess. Jesus<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
\n
<\/span>says Father. Listen to your mother there.<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>I finish eating and go to my room,<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>in the attic. It’s like an upper room,<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>I guess. I undress and put on my new clothes<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>I guess that I’m old wine in a new skin,<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>or am I more like new wine in an old?<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>I lie on my bed, look at the ceiling,<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>and hope it will open into Heaven<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>–suddenly it’s dark because I’ve fallen<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
\n
<\/span>and if I dream I don’t remember it.<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>Then I’m awake and my eyes are new so<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>the ceiling’s even brighter, so I’ve made<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>it, almost–I’m\u202fdamn near on the verge of<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>going to Heaven but it’s not my time<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>yet but at least I’m getting closer. I<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>go downstairs. Father watches baseball on<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n\n
<\/span>at least until they wake. And when they do<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>I’m going to treat them as though they’ve been<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
\n
<\/span>them to see if they’re real. And if they are<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>I’m going to go down on my knees and<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>tell them that I love them and beg them<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>to forgive me and when they ask What for?<\/span>\u00a0
<\/span>I’ll say, I don’t know–I’ll think of something.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n