Benediction

28

IN THE DAYS FOLLOWING the sermon Lyle began to wander in the town. After supper with his wife and son, he’d put on a jacket and cap and begin to walk — after the sun was down. It was usually nine or ten before he began.

He stayed away from the center of Holt and the bright streetlights. When it happened that he had to cross Main, he waited until the street was empty and then he crossed and went on walking up and down the dark sidewalks and passed over the tracks to the north side where the houses were small and meager, with empty weed-filled lots. At the end of town, he looked out at the starlit windblown fields, and then turned back into the neighborhoods.

He stood in front of houses in the shadows of trees and looked in through the windows opened to the summer nights, watching people. The little dramas, the routine moments. People moving about in the rooms, people eating and getting up from the table and crossing in the flickering blue light of television and at last turning out the house lights and going out of the darkened rooms, while he stood outside waiting to see if they would come back.

Once he saw a man in his undershirt kneel down before a woman in a robe sitting on a sofa, his face raised up to her, and the woman leaning forward, drawing him to her, running her fingers through his thin hair and taking his face in her hands and kissing him a long time, and then the man rising and rubbing his back while she sat still and watched him walking away with his hair all mussed up.

One night he stood so long in front of a house that a man called the police. He actually watched the man on the phone having the conversation.

A police car pulled up at the curb and the officer put on his cap and got out.

What do you think you’re doing here? he said.

Just standing here, Lyle said.

These people said you were looking in their window.

I didn’t mean to disturb them. I’m sorry if I have.

Let’s see some identification.

Are you charging me with something, Officer?

Let’s look at your driver’s license.

Lyle took out his wallet and handed the license to him. The man examined it under his flashlight, then put the light up into Lyle’s face.

Rob Lyle. That’s you.

Yes.

The preacher.

Yes.

Is there something wrong with you? What are you doing out here?

I’m just walking. Having a look around town.

Your family knows where you are?

They know I’m taking a walk.

It doesn’t bother you to look in other people’s houses? You think that’s all right.

I don’t think I’m doing any harm. I didn’t mean to.

Well, these people don’t like it. This man called you in.

What did he say?

That you were looking in his house.

Did he say what he was doing in his house?

Why would he say that?

People in their houses at night. These ordinary lives. Passing without their knowing it. I’d hoped to recapture something.

The officer stared at him.

The precious ordinary.

I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’d better keep moving.

I thought I’d see people being hurtful. Cruel. A man hitting his wife. But I haven’t seen that. Maybe all that’s behind the curtains. If you’re going to hit somebody maybe you pull the curtains first.

Not necessarily.

What I’ve seen is the sweet kindness of one person to another. Just time passing on a summer’s night. This ordinary life.

Well, people are pretty good, generally. Most of them. Not all of them. I see the other side.

Lyle looked around at the houses. The officer watched him.

You’d better go. People don’t want you looking in their windows, good or bad. I’ll wait here till you leave.

On Saturday night he was walking on the east side of Holt a block off Highway 34 when two men rode up in a pickup.

Is that you, Reverend?

Lyle looked at them. Yes, it’s me.

We thought it was. Just stay there a minute.

They got out and came over to him.

What are you doing out here, Reverend? Taking the night air?

Yes.

It’s pretty late. Why would you be out here now?

Did you want something? Lyle said.

There is something, the first man said and he slapped Lyle across the face. Lyle fell back and the other man moved closer. What did you think of that? the first man said.

Lyle didn’t say anything.

Tell us about love, the man said. Turn us the other cheek now.

That’s what this is about, Lyle said. I see.

What did you think it was about?

I didn’t know.

You forgot already.

No.

No, he didn’t forget, the second man said. He still loves them desert sons of bitches. He still has that on his mind.

The first man said, You believe all that, I guess, don’t you.

Yes.

He slapped Lyle again. Lyle faltered backward. He wiped his hand across his mouth, smearing blood on his cheek.

Now what do you say?

I ask you to stop this, Lyle said. It won’t get you what you want.

He thinks he’s proved something.

Do you?

No.

But you hate me now, don’t you.

I don’t hate you. I don’t like you very much.

If I slap you again, you’ll start to hate me then.

Let’s go, the other man said. Somebody’s going to see us.

All right. We’re done here. But you need to watch what you say, Preacher. You better mind your mouth, you’re about to get yourself in real trouble.

They went back to the pickup, the headlights came on and they drove off toward the highway. Lyle watched them until they’d disappeared around the corner, then he looked at the houses along the street. No lights had come on. He looked up at the sky, all the flickering stars, and started back toward the parsonage, crossing Main Street and going on into the sleeping residential neighborhood, and at the parsonage he stood at the bathroom sink to rinse his face with water. His wife appeared in the doorway.

What happened?

He turned toward her. His face was bruised and swollen.

Oh no, she said. Now what?

A couple of men stopped me. One of them slapped me.

Why? What did you do?

It’s because of what I said in church.

How did they know that? Were they from the church?

No. But they didn’t need to be. Everybody would have heard.

You don’t have any idea who they were?

I’ve never seen them before.

What will you do?

I’m going to clean up my face, he said, then I’m coming to bed.

You won’t even inform the police?

No.

But why not?

Because this isn’t about the law. Or police protection.

She looked at his swollen face and the blood on his shirt. I don’t think I’m going to last here much longer, she said. I’m going back to Denver. This is too much.

We can talk about it in the morning.

No. I’m done now. I can see that.

She turned and went back to bed. He looked at himself in the mirror and bent over the sink and began laving cold water onto his cheeks again.

When he got into bed, she was still awake.

Are you all right? she said. Are you badly hurt?

No, not badly.

I never thought our lives would turn out this way, did you?

No, but you can go back to him and be comforted again. Is that your plan?

I don’t have a plan. Except to leave here. And find a job.

What about him?

Who? John Wesley?

Him too. But I meant your friend.

I haven’t seen him in over two years.

You haven’t talked to him?

When would I talk to him?

Anytime. Whenever I’m out of the house.

No. I told you I was finished. There’s nothing more to us.

But you’ll pick up if you go back.

I don’t have any interest in that. I’m too tired. I feel like somebody slapped me too.