Beyond Fear - Softcover

Everett, Vernell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1440199418 ISBN 13: 9781440199417

Verlag: iUniverse, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

On his three-mile walk to church with his large family every Sunday, fifteen-year-old J.D. Banks has plenty of time to ponder about life at a time when blacks have no civil rights in eastern Mississippi. Church is the center of everything, and J.D. strives to live by the moral rules of the Bible. At times, J.D. finds that following the teachings of his preacher and his God are not an easy task. As J.D. comes of age in this rural community, he faces decisions about drinking and women and his place in life. He sees death, and he sees discrimination. He wonders what it would take to make a good life in this county in Mississippi. He wonders how he will overcome his paralyzing fears in his daily encounters with the Jim Crow system in his hometown. J.D. thoroughly understands the danger of getting white people riled up. Providing a social commentary on the times, Beyond Fear depicts the struggles of the poor, black people in the south as they attempt to survive both poverty and discrimination.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Vernell Everett thought for a long time about writing a book about people and experiences that he knew and wanted to share with the world. This fiction is dressed in real life experiences.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Beyond Fear

By Vernell Everett

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Vernell Everett
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4401-9941-7

Chapter One

Sunday mornings in Mississippi were times for church going, playing, eating good or just resting up for Monday. Everybody in this part of the world had to work five and a half days a week. Nobody was exempt, not even the small children between the ages of five and ten. There was always enough work for everybody. Now, Sunday was different. Sunday was the Lord's Day. The God-fearing people of Mississippi never claimed to work six days and rest the seventh day like the creator did; they made do with five and one-half days of working before they rested or took a break from the work they mostly hated. The other half day was set aside to unwind from a hard week and to get ready for praising the Lord on Sunday. Some of these people didn't have church on their minds on Saturday nights, they were too busy sinning. They would ask the Lord for forgiveness on Sunday, along with tithing a small offering from the monies that was left over from a hot Saturday night of paying for their sins. It cost money to serve two or more gods, a fact that the night owls knew well.

The church was the community center where all community members could get together and catch up on the local news. The local juke joints were not places that all the citizens would go, like children, ladies, and high ranking men of the church. This left the church as the single meeting place where all citizens were smiled upon. They all didn't go to church to get saved from the devil, which was understood by everybody.

Serving the Lord was almost as expensive as serving the devil, but not nearly as much fun. These old hypocrites were never glad to see the end of Saturday night but they had a hard time lasting until the longwinded preacher finished delivering the word. These fellows and some of the ladies too, needed to get back to sinning as soon as possible no matter what the cost. The Saturday-night booze guzzlers could charge Sunday's eye-opener half pints of rotgut until the next payday, most was shy of cash on Sundays. First they would pay their respect to their God on the Sabbath anyway, and then off to the joints.

J D sits on the porch tying the strings of his one-and-only pair of dress shoes. He used a spoon of bacon grease on them to give them a bit of a shine. He knew that by the time he walked to church, which was three miles down the dusty road, the shoes would be dirty again. He was wasting his time sprucing up them cotton-picking shoes, something that he knew, but he chose to ignore. Looking clean was an impossibility, but he would do his best with what he had. His mother taught him to be thankful for what little he had. His mother had a strong belief in the philosophy of making do with what one has and J D believed in the same philosophy.

J D went to church nearly every Sunday, but not only to give his heart to God, but to give his heart to his girlfriend and his friends too. He could also appreciate the spiritual benefits of belonging to the church. J D felt safer at church than he did at home. There were many at the church to share his confusions and doubts with. At church he felt that he was among his kind. He felt safe in big crowds.

The weather looked good for the walk to church, no rain in sight. The dust was always better than the mud. The roads in this part of Mississippi would become hard to travel on when they were wet. The mud would suck the shoes right off your feet. After a downpour the motor vehicles had to be pushed up most of the muddy hills. The best way to travel on these country roads after a rain was to pull off your shoes and walk barefooted. Horse-drawn wagons were the surest transportation for the old folks and the tots during the rainy season.

The old hound lay underneath the steps where he always lay, where it was cool and safe from the feet of nearly a dozen people tracking all over the place on Sundays. Sunday was one day of the week when nobody envied the old half-bread hound who had nothing much to do except lay in the shade every day. J D would often think of the whole world as being a better place for animals than it was for human beings, especially poor, blacks and hardworking folks. The old half-breed dog had it easy seven days a week. The old fleabag was good for absolutely nothing except eating what he could get and making himself as comfortable as possible. There seldom was anything to bark at or watch out for anyway. There wasn't much work for an old lazy-ass dog; no strangers, no hunting and no loose stock to chase; he had no responsibilities.

J D could still smell the scents from the girls' straightening combs. It took the girls a long while to fry their hair in order to make it as straight as possible. The straighter the better. The kitchen was the only room in the house where this hot-combing the hair could take place because that's where the stove was. Anybody from another culture might be led to believe that some special food was cooking, believing that colored folks ate mostly anything that grew, crawled or walked anyway. The girls were always the time-machines determining what time the march to church would start. The long three-mile walk to church began when the girls finished their hair. The time it took the ladies to get their hair ready dictated when the march got started. When Ann, the second cousin, spent Saturday night at the Banks, the giggling and primping took a lot longer. This was one of those times.

J D sometimes wondered just what was the purpose of all the useless activities that his people wasted their time doing. He never liked the answers that he came up with. Why things were as they were? He only got confused when he tried to answer his own questions. Most of the people whom he knew either never asked the questions or had long ago given up on making sense of the answers and accepted things as they were. Even if they could think about change, they had no idea what the changes should be to.

The boys were very much in tune with these rituals taken place before the march started on the road to church. Marching to the church where they could praise the Lord on Sunday mornings.

One could see through the house from the front poach to the kitchen, the kitchen was in the back of the house. The house consist of two sides, both had three rooms each. The only difference was on one side was a kitchen and a dining room and the big bedroom. The big bedroom was Mr. and Mrs. Banks. The other three bedrooms were on the opposite side of the house. There was no living room or sitting room. The big bedroom and the dining room were where the family hung out. The house had two front doors; one entered the big combination bedroom and sitting room, the dinning room and the kitchen. A ball could be thrown through the house on the kitchen side without hitting a single thing, if the back and front doors were opened. The other side had no back door, just a front doors and doors to the dinning room and kitchen. The third bedroom was used for company or, for Grandma Ida.

Now, Mr. Bank's' momma; Grandma Ida; was one mean woman. She had not one grand child who liked having her around; they were too scared of her. It was a good thing that she had lots of children to divide her days among. She lived a few weeks here and a few weeks there since her own house burned down. You could tell that the old lady was not here this week by the noise the girls were making while they got ready for the big day of the week.

"Ah-ite chilens, las hur up ah we be late fuh Sunday School." Momma...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: iUniverse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1440199418
• ISBN 13: 9781440199417
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 260
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: KreGa Onlinehandel GmbH; 4950000000000; info@krega-onlinehandel.de; ; Birkenweg 31; Brakel; 33034; Deutschland