Bible Stories for Adults by James Morrow

Author:James Morrow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

Abe Lincoln in McDonald’s

HE CAUGHT the last train out of 1863 and got off at the blustery December of 2009, not far from Christmas, where he walked well past the turn of the decade and, without glancing back, settled down in the fifth of July for a good look around. To be a mere tourist in this place would not suffice. No, he must get it under his skin, work it into his bones, enfold it with his soul.

In his vest pocket, pressed against his heart’s grim cadence, lay the final draft of the dreadful Seward Treaty. He needed but to add his name—Jefferson Davis had already signed it on behalf of the secessionist states—and a cleft nation would become whole. A signature, that was all, a simple “A. Lincoln.”

Adjusting his string tie, he waded into the chaos grinding and snorting down Pennsylvania Avenue and began his quest for a savings bank.

“The news isn’t good,” came Norman Grant’s terrible announcement, stabbing from the phone like a poisoned dagger. “Jimmy’s test was positive.”

Walter Sherman’s flabby, pumpkinlike face whitened with dread. “Are you sure?” Positive, what a paradoxical term, so ironic in its clinical denotations: nullity, disease, doom.

“We ran two separate blood checks, followed by a fluorescent antibody analysis. Sorry. Poor Jim’s got Blue Nile Fever.”

Walter groaned. Thank God his daughter was over at the Sheridans’. Jimmy had been Tanya’s main Christmas present of three years ago—he came with a special note from Santa—and her affection for the old slave ran deep. Second father, she called him. Walter never could figure out why Tanya had asked for a sexagenarian and not a whelp like most kids wanted, but who could figure the mind of a preschooler?

If only one of their others had caught the lousy virus. Jimmy wasn’t the usual chore boy. Indeed, when it came to cultivating a garden, washing a rug, or painting a house, he didn’t know his nose from the nine of spades. Ah, but his bond with Tanya! Jimmy was her guardian, playmate, confidant, and, yes, her teacher. Walter never ceased marveling at the great discovery of the last century: if you chained a whelp to a computer at the right age (no younger than two, no older than six), he’d soak up vast tracts of knowledge and subsequently pass them on to your children. Through Jimmy and Jimmy alone, Tanya had learned a formidable amount of plane geometry, music theory, American history, and Greek before setting foot in kindergarten.

“Prognosis?”

The doctor sighed. “Blue Nile Fever follows a predictable course. In a year or so, Jimmy’s T-cell defenses will collapse, leaving him prey to a hundred opportunistic infections. What worries me, of course, is Marge’s pregnancy.”

A dull dread crept through Walter’s white flesh. “You mean—it could hurt the baby?”

“Well, there’s this policy—the Centers for Disease Control urge permanent removal of Nile-positive chattel from all households containing pregnant women.”

“Removed?” Walter echoed indignantly. “I thought it didn’t cross the pigmentation barrier.”

“That’s probably true.” Grant’s voice descended several registers. “But fetuses, Walter, know what I’m saying? Fetuses, with their undeveloped immune systems.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.