Edenville Owls

Chapter 41

On Sunday afternoon, with the sun out and the melting snow making the highway shiny wet, I rode my bicycle up to Searsville and went to Reverend Tupper’s youth group meeting.

He had on his tan uniform. He greeted each of us by name. He seemed so pleasant when he did it, it was hard to remember the Richard Krauss we had heard in Miss Delaney’s house. Maybe it was just because I knew about Richard Krauss, but as he said hello to everybody, I thought of a casket salesman who had come to our house when my grandmother died. The salesman was all condolences and niceness, and like dead inside. I knew that inside of Reverend Tupper was Richard Krauss.

“Is there anyone in the room,” Reverend Tupper said when we were all settled in, “who doesn’t know the facts of life?”

A kid in front said, “You mean sex?”

“Don’t speak out, Tommy,” Tupper said. “Raise your hand. When called on, stand up and speak directly. It is appropriate to call adults sir.”

From his seat, the kid said, “Yes, sir.”

Tupper stared silently at him, and I thought I saw Richard Krauss peeking out. The kid looked confused, a guy next to him whispered, “Stand up.” And he did, quickly.

“Better,” Tupper said. “Repeat your question.”

“Sir,” the kid said, “when you say ‘facts of life,’ do you mean sex, sir?”

Reverend Tupper was now very sweet.

“Yes, Tommy,” he said, “I do.”

“Thank you, sir,” Tommy said.

“Do you know the facts, Tommy?” the reverend said.

“Yes sir.”

“Everyone?”

He raised his hand, all of us raised ours.

“Anyone who doesn’t?” the reverend asked.

He raised his hand again. Nobody raised theirs. There were kids in there who were sixteen years old. Everybody knew.

“Good,” he said. “Today the subject for discussion is the movie The Outlaw, starring Jane Russell. Has anyone seen it?”

He raised his hand. None of us raised ours. Russell had gone with Billy to see it, when it came to the local theater, but they couldn’t get in. Nobody would sell them a ticket. Russell blamed Billy. Because he was tall, he thought he looked older, and he claimed it was because Billy had such a baby face.

“Good,” the reverend said. “It is a disgrace. It corrupts the great story of America, the conquest of the west, where men stood alone motivated by honor and the spirit of independence to bring law and order to an uncivilized wasteland.”

I wanted to see the movie because of the ads showing Jane Russell in a blouse with a very low neck.

“Since the Jews took over our country, morality has plummeted, and The Outlaw is a perfect example of a movie that the Jews have promoted to distract us from their plans to slowly turn us over to the Communists.”

I wasn’t entirely sure what Communism was. I knew it had something to do with our Russian allies, but I didn’t know what it had to do with the Jews. I also couldn’t think of anybody in the government with a Jewish name. President Truman wasn’t Jewish, certainly. Neither was Senator Saltonstall.

“Each of you boys is a defiance of that attempt. Each of you contains the clean white blood of your ancestors. Each of you worships the one true God. You must not defile yourself. You must never succumb to the wiles of someone not of your heritage. To finally repel the Jews, we need an uncompromised line of white Christian men, generations of them, staying strong, keeping the faith.”

He churned on like that, getting kind of worked up, shaking his fist, stomping around up in front of his flag. What a jerk. Everybody sat and listened. I wondered if anybody took him seriously. They must have. Why would they come if they didn’t?

After the reverend was through, we all stood and said our pledge about being white and Christian, and we put our fists over our hearts, and that was it. Reverend Tupper went to the front door to shake each of our hands good bye. I hung around so that I was the last.

“Before I go,” I said. “I have a message for you.”

“Really?” Reverend Tupper said.

“From my eighth grade teacher,” I said. “You know her. Miss Delaney?”

Reverend Tupper stared at me. He didn’t seem so pleasant.

Finally he said, “Give me the message, please.”

“Sure,” I said. “She wants to meet you tonight, seven o’clock, at the bandstand in Edenville, down by the wharf. Do you really know her, sir?”

“Is there anything else?” Reverend Tupper said.

“That’s all she said, sir.”

He nodded and turned back into the meeting hall.

“You gonna meet her?” I said. “Sir?”

He didn’t look back, he just walked into the hall and shut the door.