red moon over west virginia - 26. jerusalem

by jeremy witherington

part 26 of 36

for previous episode, click here

molotov hopped off the freight. he was in the switching yard. it was not as he had remembered it. the last time he had been there he had just crossed the yard and climbed a little hill and got up on to the highway where he could grab a ride from a wayfaring stranger to texarkana or tuscaloosa . but now the highway, and the horizon, were blocked off by an endless construction site of half completed tall buildings. molotov began walking through the construction site, trying to find his way back to the highway. the tall buildings cast long shadows across his path. he heard voices. the voices were coming from behind a random section of wall in what looked to be one of the buildings under construction. there was a large packing case beside the section of wall. molotov peeked from behind it. three men sat in enormous easy chairs arranged around a plain wooden table. a large unmarked bottle of what looked to be whiskey stood on the table. the three men had glasses of the whiskey looking liquid in their hands. they all wore short sleeved white shirts with string ties. one of them wore a stetson hat, another wore a sombrero, and the third had a red and white polka dotted rag tied around his head. they looked like hard men. they looked like godly men. they looked like hard godly men. i still say, the man in the stetson hat said, that we should see what ty wickerson has to say before we go ahead. we have the permits, the man in the sombrero said. and we are doing the good work. we are building the new jerusalem. at the words “new jerusalem”, molotov’s eyes opened a bit wide. he listened more intently. i agree with buck, the man with the rag around his said, it’s hard enough to do anything in this town, let alone build jerusalem, unless ty wickerson is on board. i assumed ty wickerson was on board, the second man said, otherwise we never would have got this far. so did i, said the third man. the first man picked up the bottle and poured more liquid into his glass. molotov felt he had heard enough. he crept silently away. next