The Evangelical's Daughter by Debra Roberts Torres-Reyes

Author:Debra Roberts Torres-Reyes [Torres-Reyes, Debra Roberts]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781532012280
Publisher: iUniverse
Published: 2017-02-21T05:00:00+00:00

The Casualties of War

Sioux City

Fall 1969

And [God] said [unto Abraham], Take now thy son . . . whom thou lovest . . . and offer him for a burnt-offering.

—Genesis 22:2

Not a dry eye was in our crowded little church that Wednesday evening, as the nephew of Sister Barbara sat at the organ, playing and singing. (Yes, that’s the same Sister Barbara who’d been sleeping in our dining room, although she wasn’t catatonic anymore; I’ll get to that story in a bit.)

Evangelist Calvin was singing

In a mansion

Made of stone

In a castle

All alone

He cares

He cares

He cares

He cares

God cares—he really cares for you.

Although Calvin was a dark, obese man with three chins, a face smashed like a Pekineses, and large, Jell-O-y belly, he always dressed impeccably and smelled of expensive men’s cologne. He was a skilled pianist and had an awesome voice. He was as good as, if not better than, anyone I had ever heard in the entertainment business. His talents made up for his homeliness.

That’s probably why, despite his appearance, the young women in our church who’d been bugging God to send them husbands were enamored with Evangelist Calvin.

However, I’d overheard Calvin tell his Aunt Barbara over several pieces of fried chicken and some collard greens that he was not looking for a wife. You see, after church each week, Calvin and Sister Barbara had begun preparing a big spread for us. We would feast on fried fish, fried chicken or fried pork chops, greens, sweet potatoes, and potato salad. Then, to top it all off, we’d eat peach cobbler, apple pie, pineapple upside down cake, or Ma Harris’ lemon pound cake (which she’d charge fifteen cents apiece for, but it was worth it). It was at one such feast that Calvin told his aunt that he was having the time of his life as a traveling evangelist and that he wasn’t ready to give that up for a wife and a family. Bachelorhood suited him to a tee, and the single women at Mt. Sinai knew it. Regardless, they continued to bombard the Lord for his hand in marriage.

Calvin was a young college graduate, too, with a master’s degree in music or something. This was highly unusual, because most of the people in our church had been directed by the Lord to quit working or give up their educations so they could fully devote their lives to doing the Lord’s work.

Like Sister Joe. For the past three years, Sister Joe had been a frequent guest at our home after the Lord had called her off of her nurse’s aide job. She depended on the kindness of those whom the Lord had laid on their hearts to give her free “room, board, and donations.”

At twenty, Sister Joe was also asking God to bless her with a husband. She was torn between Calvin and Harry, Pastor Billie James’ son, though neither man had any interest in her.

Early one afternoon, when I returned from school, I found Sister Joe in the same spot as she’d been when I’d left that morning, wearing the clothes she’d slept in the night before.

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