Too Short for a Blog Post, Too Long for a Tweet 498

 

Here are a couple of excerpts from a book I recently read, "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store," by James McBride.

So a few years after medical school when friends approached him about attending a meeting of the Knights of Pottstown to spread good Christian values, he agreed. And when that Knights of Pottstown meeting actually turned out to be the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan instead, he saw no difference. The men were like him. They wanted to preserve America. This country was woods before the white man came. It needed to be rescued from those who wanted to pollute the pure white race with ignorance and dirt, fouling things up by mixing the pure WASP heritage with the Greeks, the Italians, the Jews who had murdered their precious Jesus Christ, and the niggers who dreamed of raping white women and whose lustful black women were a danger to every decent, God-fearing white man. 

But Dodo could not sleep. He lay in terror that Son of Man would return. He fought sleep. He was terrified he'd awaken to Son of Man returning to visit that extreme pain on him again. He did not know what to do. He could not help himself, and once again, guilt assailed him. I did wrong, he thought. I did wrong, wrong, wrong. I'll be here forever.

Sleep began to push at him again, and as it did, his terror grew. He began to wonder if he was sleeping or not, and since he could not tell, that increased his terror. He began to sob. He was doomed.