Читать книгу Why Beulah Shot Her Pistol Inside the Baptist Church - Clayton Sullivan - Страница 8

I hope you understand by now who I once was and I hope you understand who I now am. For the first sixteen years of my life I was Beulah Buchanan. I was the daughter of Arnold and Josephine . For the last six years I have been Beulah Rainey. I’ve been the wife of Ralph Rainey. Like I’ve just told you, these last six years have been like a wagon wheel goin’ around and around and around. It’s been the same thing over and over. Monday through Saturday I’ve worked at Ralph’s cafe and on Sunday I’ve gone to church to let my light shine for Jesus.

During all this time I felt trapped like a mouse in a cat’s paw. But then last February—about six months ago—things started changing. Things started changing because of what Brother Ledbetter done.

One day at Ralph’s cafe the subject of preachers come up. How and why the subject of preachers come up I don’t remember. But it did. I popped off and said, “We’ve got a mighty fine preacher at our church. His name is Brother Ledbetter. His full name is Brother Henry Ledbetter.”

Quick as a frog chasing a tadpole Robert Hawthorn spoke up and said, “Henry Ledbetter! I’ve known that son-of-a-gun all of my life.” Robert works at the Masonite plant with my daddy. The two of them is buddies. And he’s a regular at Ralph’s cafe. He eats with us at least three times a week. He says he can’t get enough of our barbecue chicken and barbecue beans.

Robert went on to say, “Henry and I went to school together.” I didn’t know Robert knew Brother Ledbetter and I didn’t know they’d gone to school together. And so I asked, “Where did you and the preacher go to school with each other?”

“At Salem.” That was Robert’s answer. Salem is a little community like New Jerusalem. It’s across the county line in Naboshuba County.

Robert kept on talking. “Yeah, I’ve known old Henry Ledbetter all my life. It’s hard for me to think of him being a preacher. His daddy worked for the county. His old man drove a road scraper in Naboshuba County for thirty years. I’ll say one thing for him: he knew how to keep gravel roads in shape. Henry was the only son the Ledbetters had. Henry always had a hard time in school with spelling. The reason I know is because me and him was in the same grade. For three years we set side by side. He didn’t have a hard time with arithmetic. Or reading. He just had a hard time with spellin’. In the sixth grade we had this teacher named Miss Motley. She really knew her stuff. She was a graduate of the teachers’ college in Hattiesburg. Miss Motley believed the Good Lord in heaven above had put her here on this earth to teach pupils in Naboshuba County how to spell. She made progress with most of us, but not with old Henry. If you asked him to spell cat he’d say k-a-t. Or maybe k-a-t-t. If you asked him to spell bird he’d say b-u-r-d. If you tried to correct him he’d say, ‘If b-u-r-d doesn’t spell bird you tell me what it spells.’ Old Henry gave Miss Motley fits. I remember her one day sayin’ in class, ‘Henry, you’re, driving me crazy.’”

Robert went on to say, “Henry’s full name is Henry Franklin Ledbetter. His folks named him ‘Franklin’ after Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That is why his nickname in school was ‘Mr. President.’ But he never used his middle name. As best I can remember he dropped out of school after the tenth grade. Or maybe it was after the ninth grade. He fooled around for a while working as a vegetable man at the Top Dollar Grocery store. Then for two or three years he drove a delivery truck for Acme Cleaners. He then became a used car salesman in Hattiesburg.”

That surprised me. Which is why I said, “You’ve got to be kiddin’.”

Robert said, “No I ain’t. He became a used car salesman at the Red Auto Barn on Pine Street. But one day, so he told me, he felt the call to be a preacher. Which is what he is today.”

Robert sayin’ Brother Ledbetter had a hard time in school with spelling and spelled cat the wrong way kinda hurt my feelings. I felt I needed to put in a good word for Brother Ledbetter. And so I said, “It may be that Brother Ledbetter dropped out of school after the ninth or tenth grade and it may be he ain’t never been to college but I’m here to tell you I ain’t never met nobody who knows as much about the Bible as Brother Ledbetter does. He knows it from A to Z. Particularly does he know a lot about the book of Revelations. He can tell you what everything in there means. He’s even figured out when the second coming of Jesus is gonna take place.”