I was sitting with the boys, passing the jugs around and working through the day. We were in a good spot, sitting on a wall by the alley with some weedy trees for shade and a nice breeze blowin' through. I had a jug of wine. Benedict had wine, too--two bottles, one he was passin' and one he was hidin'. Fat Lester had a jug of vodka. Bill, who had his own house and an old lady, brought a quart of beer. Craig and Johnny, the kid, were there, too. They didn't have no money and bogarted off us. What the hell? We had enough.
Well, it was getting time for the preacher to come around. I knew that because I felt the holy wine getting to me. I started thinkin' about something he said one time, in a psalm or something, about the Hebrew elders sitting around the village gate. I know he was talking about somebody else but I got to thinking about how all of us was like them, sitting around on this here wall. And, if that sounds crazy, well, hell, that ain't the first time I thought it.
I remember sitting around Bill's house, watching Somalia on the news a long time back. They showed a bunch on the T.V. that was 'sposed to be the elders of the village there. They were all old men, dressed in ragtag clothes and sittin' on some steps. I set down my wine bottle and said, "That's us--the elders of the village!"
Sue Ann, Bill's girlfriend--who I sometimes call Suzanne by mistake-- well, she sometimes calls me other names and not by mistake--said, "You guys can't run your own lives, much less a village."
Anyways, we were sittin' around passin' the jugs. I was running this thing through my head and thinkin' 'bout the preacher, too. Talk of the devil and he shows up.
Well, he ain't exactly a devil--at least, not like the devils I've seen when I was in the jitter joint. Just a twenty-five-year-old kid that looked like he ain't never done a day's work in his life. Delicate, manicured hands. Delicate, shaven face. Suit and tie. You know the type.
I took a slug of wine and told him hello.
"Hello, Jess, Les, Benedict . . ." and so on, he said, makin' a point of remembering all our names. He liked to act like he was on the same level we was but I could tell he was sweatin'. "You all want some lunch?"
"I'm starving," Fat Lester said.
The preacher started handing out paper bags. Sandwiches with pasty tuna salad, potato chips and apples. He did this about once a week. Usually, his wife, Marian, helped him out but Fat Lester insulted her the last time.
He said the Grace and got out his Bible. I hoped that he was going to start preaching so I could ask him 'bout the elders of the village. He started opening the book but then he said, "I'd like to invite you all to church this Sunday."
Benedict said, "I ain't goin' to no Protestant church. I'm a Catholic."
Not that Benedict ever went to the Catholic Church, either. Well, once he did. Me and him had just jumped off this train in some little Iowa town. Benedict was talkin' something about some holy day or something. So we went into this Catholic church near the tracks. There was candles burnin' and nice smellin' flowers. Soon as folks started comin' in, though, Benedict wanted to get out. So he ain't no churchgoer.
Craig said, "We can't take Jess in there. He'd run everybody out."
They all had a good laugh on me on that one. So what? Baths ain't healthy. 'Sides, Craig don't smell too good his damned self.
"You would all be welcome," the preacher said, after a little hesitating.
Bill puked up his sandwich. Fat Lester frowned at him and then asked the preacher for another.
The preacher asked Johnny, "What about you? Do you want to go?"
Johnny looked down at some ants crawling on the sidewalk. His eyes were a little cloudy. "I don't know," he said.
Then Leah Ann walked down the street. I don't know why all the girls in this neighborhood have Ann tagged to their names. Anyway, Fat Lester hollered at her to come over and Bill and Craig hollered at her to do some other things. The preacher's head turned red as an apple. Leah Ann had a face mean and ugly as a bulldog. She turned it on us and said a few things herself. Lester and Bill and Craig jeered at her until she turned the corner.
"How can you guys talk to a woman like that?" the preacher said.
He was getting ready to give the boys a big sermon but I know what he was really thinkin'. He was wondering how we could look at a woman as ugly as Leah Ann. He had that sweet, little, blond wife and couldn't think of looking at another gal. But we didn't have those kinds of gals lookin' for us.
"Hey, Preacher," Fat Lester said, reaching out his paws. "Why don't you give us some money so we can get something to eat later."
"You'd only spend it on drinking."
"No, we wouldn't. These sandwiches aren't going to last us all day."
The preacher glanced down, a sheepish look in his eyes.
"C'mon, Preach," Lester said. "You can afford a couple of bucks."
I looked intently at the preacher then. He had a frown. His hands kept slippin' in and out of his pockets.
Finally he said, "All I have is two dollars." He pulled out two bills from his front pocket, makin' to hand them over to Fat Lester.
"Why do you have to lie for?" I asked. "You see there's more of us than two dollars will feed. And I know you got more money. You come over preaching and here we are sittin' at the gate like the elders of the village and, instead of acting like a man and telling us no, you lie to us."
His mouth gaped like an open gate and he looked at me like I was crazy. I don't care--I'm used to that. I didn't know if he was just going to walk off or if he was going to bust me up. I just stared into that dainty face of his and decided he was goin' to have to hit me. I wasn't lettin' him walk off.
Instead, he reached for his wallet and handed me a ten-spot. "You're right," he said.
Twelve dollars! Twelve tribes of Israel! Hallelujah, boys, we're drinkin' some holy wine tonight!
I put the money in my pocket and asked him about the elders of the village. He didn't know what I meant right off. Still, he opened his Bible and flipped it around.
I listened to him drone on a piece but to tell you the truth, I wasn't too interested. I felt those bills. I didn't feel like an elder of the village anymore.