Decoration Day by Vic Kerry Page A

isn’t too much for him.”
    Before he could hear the remainder of the conversation, David fell into deep sleep.
     
     
    “Good morning.”
    David opened his eyes. Harsh, overpowering sunlight blinded him. He put his hand in front of his face to block the light. For a moment, David forgot where he was. He reached out for Anna, but his hand fell off the bed.
    “Are you awake, Reverend Stanley?” Marsh said.
    Reality set in. Anna was dead. He lay in a bedroom of a very creepy mansion in Tennessee, and God had talked to him last night. It had been more than that. God had beckoned him to join him. He sat straight up and stared his host dead in the face.
    Marsh’s steel-blue eyes looked hard and not very friendly. David wondered if the man’s eyes had always looked so harsh. He couldn’t remember. The thing he did remember was that Marsh and the other elders had kept him from meeting God.
    “I want to leave,” he said.
    “Why?” Marsh’s eyes softened to a look of curiosity.
    “You kept me from God.” David threw his feet off the bed and stood up.
    A wave of dizziness washed over him. The room made a half whirl before he plopped back down on the bed. The springs creaked and popped under his weight. The wall tilted back the other way and finally stopped. The sun shining through the window seemed harsher. It stabbed his eyes and pierced his brain.
    “What did that doctor give me?” he yelled, grasping his head as he did.
    “The same sleep medicine that he gave you before.”
    “I don’t believe you. You had me drugged. I heard you talking about me being the right one. What are going to do to me?”
    Marsh walked around and sat on the edge of the bed. The mattress depressed. He suddenly had a very fatherly, worried look about him.
    “I was going to let you preach,” Marsh said, “but I’m beginning to reconsider it. I think you are losing grip on reality.”
    “The only thing I’m losing is my patience. Tell me what is going on.”
    “Ebenezer believes you are suffering from a kind of delirium. He believes that our isolation here has made it worse.”
    “Why isn’t it affecting you?”
    “Probably because we are used to the isolation. It is part of us,” Marsh said. “It’s in our character.”
    “How about the light?” David asked. “Is that part of the delirium, or is it God like I believe?”
    “I think it’s part of the delirium even though it started before the road ended up blocked. As for it being your God, I highly doubt that.”
    “Why? Don’t you have faith?”
    “I have faith in many things, Reverend, but I also know that you didn’t hear your God’s voice until you had another blow to the head. I find the two correlate.”
    “I’m not crazy,” David said.
    “I don’t think you are, but I do think you’ve had two severe blows to the head that are affecting your judgment and rationality.” Marsh stood. The mattress rose free of his added weight. “You will stay with me until Sunday. I don’t want you back at the church. It has ill effects on you.”
    David knew he wasn’t going to win this particular battle. Marsh owned the town as best he could tell. If Marsh didn’t want David at the church, it wouldn’t happen. Also, God had come to him in this room. He might do it again.
    “I’ll stay,” he said.
    “Are you going to cause any more excitement?”
    “I’ll try not to.” As Marsh started out the door, David continued. “I left my sermon notes in the graveyard. I’m afraid they’ve been ruined by the weather, but could you fetch them?”
    Marsh smiled. “I saw the pad out there when I found you unconscious in the church. I brought it back with me. I’ll have it sent up with some food.”
    “Thank you,” he said and thought about all the canned goods. “Could I get some fresh fruit with it?”
    “I don’t think so. We don’t have any. There’s not enough time to eat up the surplus before Decoration Day.” Marsh smiled and closed the door behind