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Show Ida's Sabbath 89 toward the big bass sound that would startle everyone in the congregation and ruin the prayer. Hopelessly uncomfortable, Ida picked up her right foot, then the l e f t , and hung both in mid-air. "And watch over all those who are not with us today," Brother Parsons prayed on, "that they may be blessed and comforted " Ida's glasses s l id down her nose, the back of her neck itched, and she f i n a l l y put her feet to rest under the bench where they immediately began to slide again. She wished that this prayer would end and wished for the f i f t i e t h time that she hadn't put all of her garments in the wash together, something she'd never done before. Last night, for the f i r s t time in her l i f e , she had decided that i t didn't matter i f she took her garments off, at least for the hour i t would take to wash and dry. How was she to know that they would get caught in the rinse cycle when the power went out? She had tried to get them dry, wringing and squeezing the cotton; she had tried holding them over a candle flame, had even run through the house holding them over her head like a s a i l . Ida, not used to running, had collapsed onto her sofa after two laps through the kitchen and living room. She had f i n a l l y given up and gone to bed, thinking she could use the dryer in the morning when the power would be on, but the outage had not ended until 9:45-fifteen minutes before church. She could feel her thighs touching, her slipperiness underneath pink polyester, and blushed at the thought of near nudity. She wished she had some of that fancy lace underwear that Louis had always wanted her to buy "just for special occasions." Anything but this. She wished that she had Louis. Why had he l e f t just when she had bought the electric organ that |