Miles away down the road, a legendary young healer is ready to raise the roof on a tent gathering. Sawdust is on the floor and the lights are bright and a crippled boy in a wheelchair has been brought forward to feel his healing hands. The boy lies in his chair drooling up at the lights, hands trembling, the crowd watching on all sides, spectators all piled up along the back and sides and others peeking in the opened opening, some lying on the ground with their heads stuck up between the tent pegs. The crippled child waits, the mother trembling also, nearby, hands clasped breastwise to the Holy Father. Sweet Mary Mother of Saints heal my child who was wrong from the womb Amen. The lights flicker. The healer is imbued with the Spirit of God which has come down at the edge of this cotton field and put into his fingers the strength of His love and healing fire. Outside bright blades of lightning arch and thunderclouds rumble in the turbulent sky as the healer goes into his trance. His fine dark hair is sleek on the sides of his head and he cries out: “Heeeeeal! Heal this boy, Lord! Heal him! Dear sweet merciful God if You ever felt it in Your heart to heal somebody heal this boy! This boy! This one right here, Lord! I know there’s a bunch of ’em over there in darkest Africa need healing too Lord but they ain’t down on their knees to You right now like we are!”

The healer sinks to his knees with these words, hands locked and upflung before him. Ushers are moving slowly through the crowd with their plates out, but nobody’s putting much into the plates yet because they haven’t seen the boy get up and walk.

“Lord what about Gethsemane? Lord what about Calvary’s cross? Lord what about Your merciful love that we’re here to lay on this child? There’s his mama, Lord. I guess his daddy’s in here, too. Maybe all his brothers and sisters.”

“He’s a only child,” the mama whispers, but nobody seems to notice. The rain has started and everybody’s trying to crowd inside.

“Neighbors? I don’t believe there’s much faith in this house tonight. I believe we’ve done run into a bunch of doubting Thomases, folks who want to play before they pay. Maybe they think this ain’t nothing but a sideshow. Maybe they think this boy works for me. Because I don’t believe they’re putting in any money to further our work.”