Project Purple

15 - The Preacher

The routine of life in the colony continued, and there were no other casualties during those searing days of June and July, which greeted the colonists with long, bleeding daytime hours, while the pinecones on the surrounding spruce became a husky brown.

The Governor continued to allay and to assure-Everything was fine, nothing resembling the Cowleechs 'freak accident' was ever likely to reoccur. And as the days wore on, the colonists occupied their minds, once again, with their daily toiling tasks of building a viable colony.

In the evenings, there was heady dialog at the quad table, and hearty comradeships were strengthened. Preacher Robert, though stiff when it came to public speaking at the pulpit, was quite erudite and personable in an intimate setting. The Badger, whose name was Alison, undertook Robert in friendly debates on Christianity, probing and nudging, in a light-hearted way, the Preacher's belief system. Robert was always happy to oblige.

These two men spent extensive rumination on the meaning of life, on what it meant to serve a God, of the recognition of alternate life styles, and of what constituted sin. Robert was content with Alison's company, and they sat out there under the stars and talked, and sometimes drank a bit of cider, and sometimes disputed, until well after the others had retired for the evening. The Badger had taken an impassioned interest in the Robert's life, and what he stood for as a man.

But what was really going on? Was Robert slow-dancing into an un-chartered world he didn't know existed?

Some understanding crept into the Robert's flowering frame of reference when the Buckskinner elbowed him once and grinned over at the Badger.

"What's the Charter say about 'tea bagging'?"

With this lewd bombshell his epiphany came-A homosexual had been sent to him-deliberately-to challenge his ability to save a human who had fallen into sin!

Oh, but the Preacher felt himself up to the challenge! Surely, the gospel conveyed the following tidings for a reason: "Christ came into the world to save sinners."

Robert was going to save this poor lost Pilgrim soul from Los Angeles!

***

It had been glum that first week after the Cowleech's death, and they were in sore need of lightness and joviality. Coincidentally, that mid-July Sabbath marked the colony's halfway point in their venture, and the Governor declared a celebration-with double rations of alcohol for everyone!

They played such games as Catch the Chicken, a favorite among many of the colonists; Kick the Can was also a crowd pleaser. They were an easy group to entertain, since their last celebration of any sort had been that very first evening seven long weeks back. The Matron baked her special cornbread, and the Pickleherring performed a competition of colonial riddles, which the six huts competed to answer first: 'What flies up, but is always down?' - Goose feathers! And: 'When is a boy most like a bear?' - When he's barefoot! And: 'What has a mouth but can never talk?' - A river! And: 'What kind of room is not in a house?' - A mushroom! The riddles continued, and Robert's quick-thinking servant, the Goatwench, kept them from falling into last place.

The Sayer threw out Shakespearian quotes for the colonists to guess:

"You are one who converses more with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the morning."

Hearty laughter was followed by enthusiastic guesses: "Anthony and Cleopatra!"; "The merchant of Venice!"; "Richard the Third!".

No one guessed "Coriolanus".