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Show Ida's Sabbath 96 that the church had been standing. Ida patted the remaining boards. "You and me, steeple," she said. "We've been through a lot together these past years-you up here, a beacon for the house of the Lord, me below, playing the organ, a reminder to everybody to reverence the house of the Lord. And here we are both undressed. I didn't mean my undressing to affect yours." Ida jumped as lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. She f e l t something next to her. "Ida?" Ida didn't respond at f i r s t . Nobody else would be out on the roof of the church in this weather, she thought. "Ida?" "Who are you?" she asked, afraid to look. "Don't you know?" She turned her head s l i g h t l y , enough to see a b r i l l i a n t white glow and the hem of a fiery white robe. "You must be from Heaven above," she said. "How did you get here?" "With faith like the grain of a mustard seed," the white-robed being said. "I can do anything, actually, but t e l l me Ida, why did you do what you did?" "Me? Well I . . . I t ' s like this. I know I did something wrong to wash my . . . w e l l , you know...my garments all at the same time, leaving me without your, I mean without God's protection and breaking my promise. I've disobeyed but I've been good the rest of the time, real good. I've only missed three Sundays in twenty years, you know, when Raylene's baby was born, when the doctor was so slow in emergency, my finger, you know, and then when Louis had his hernia." |
