Glad, glad, glad, oh, so glad

I got Jesus in my soul . . .

“Stop ’im! He gets on my nerves!” Lawson shouted as the car swished through the rain.

Johnson cuffed him.

“Mister, I ain’t done nothing,” he mumbled.

“What do you suppose he’s suffering from?” Murphy asked.

“Delusions of grandeur, maybe,” Lawson said.

“These colored boys sure go off their nuts easy,” Murphy commented, nodding sadly.

“It’s because they live in a white man’s world,” Johnson said.

“Say, nigger, what did you eat down here?” Murphy asked, reaching his free hand and touching Johnson in anticipation.

“I ate pears, oranges, bananas, pork chops,” he said. “And I had some grapes . . .”

The car filled with laughter.

“And you didn’t eat any watermelon?” Lawson asked.

“No, sir,” he answered solemnly. “I didn’t see any.”

The policemen roared harder and louder.

“You’re sure a case, boy,” Murphy said.

The brakes screeched and the car pulled to a curb.

“All right,” Lawson said. “We’re at the hospital now. Tell us where to go.”

He sat up. Through rain he saw the corner where he had gone down into the manhole.

“Right at the corner . . .” he said, pointing.

The streets, save for a few lamps glowing feebly through the rain, were dark and empty. The car pulled to a stop. He leaned forward and waved his hand.

“Come on. Let’s take a look,” Lawson said, getting out of the car and looking up and down the rain-filled street.

He was wild to get out of the car now. If he could but show them the things he had seen, then they would feel as he had felt and they in turn would show them to others and those others would feel as they had felt, and soon the whole world would feel the same, everybody in it would be governed by the same impulse of pity.

“Let me show you, mister,” he begged with tears in his eyes.

Again Lawson looked up and down the street; no one was in sight. The rain slanted down like black wires across the wind-swept air. Dim yellow squares glowed in the windows of apartment buildings to left and right.

“Take ’im out,” Lawson ordered.

Murphy and Johnson opened the door and pushed him forward; he stood trembling in the rain.

“All right, now. Come on and show us,” Lawson said.

They freed his arms. Now, he would do it! How amazed they would be! They would never dream how simple it was until he had shown them! The rain soaked his skin, but he was too happy to notice.

“Show us,” Lawson said impatiently.

“Yes, sir.”

He stooped and inserted a finger in one of the tiny circles of the manhole cover and tugged, but it did not move. He pulled harder, but he was too weak to budge it.

“Did you really go down in there, boy?” Lawson asked with a twinge of doubt in his voice.

“Yes, sir. Just a minute. I’ll show you.”