Part 5 (2/2)
The men and women who sat across from me now came to the same Catholic church that had once banished thein, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for in, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord, our God
At Coroup of us to stand at the altar Linda, Neil, Maggie, and I joined Sister Margie, Steve Read and his wife, and a few other inmates with their families We held hands and forie stood between Linda and ie; Linda with an in
The leprosy patients remained in their wheelchairs and in their pews Father Reynolds recited the liturgy, drank from the Communion cup, and broke the bread In the Episcopal church, the next step would be the shared cup
I had been a lay Eucharist ets to wear a robe and help deliver the wine to parishi+oners during Communion I would put the ornate cup to the lips of the co: ”the Blood of Christ, the Cup of Salvation” During the course of a single Communion, more than a hundred people would drink from the cup Some lathered their lips with saliva before they drank Others opened their mouths wide like a fish Women ore too much lipstick left a thin, oily film on top of the wine Some of the older people backwashed bits of the wafer into the dark red wine It took faith to be a lay Eucharistic minister and still drink fro bread with the patients, privileged to be in a church that offered solace and co I didn't want to offend any of the patients, like I had Harry, but in good conscience, I couldn't let er of a shared cup I held ie, and Neil to pass on the cup if necessary
Father Reynolds stepped in front of each of us with a small plate of wafers We stood with hands turned up, and he placed a wafer in each palave the bread to Harry and Jimmy and Stan and Sarah
A woman held her mouth wide open, and Father Reynolds placed the wafer on her tongue Stan and Sarah held out their tiny fingers-so sits had been absorbed into their bodies Father Reynolds placed a wafer in their palms and then recited loudly, ”The Body of Christ, the Bread of Heaven” That was their signal that the wafer was in place They couldn't see it And they couldn't feel it
I watched Harry balance the wafer on as left of his hands The light behind hilassInscribed on the glass ords from the Gospel, I will console them in all their afflictions I will console them in all their afflictions
Father Reynolds returned to the altar It was tih in the air, recited a few phrases, and took a drink from the cup Then he put it back on the altar and recited the closing prayer
None of us would be allowed to touch the chalice I understood why someone with a disease wouldn't be allowed to drink, but I didn't knohy inmates were disallowed Part of me was relieved, but I also understood that I occupied a new place in the eyes of the church I was an outcast right alongside the victi, I found myself alone with Ella in the cafeteria We finished our first cup of coffee before 5:00 AM AM She asked if I had gone to church I told her that not only did I go, but that my fauards around, I asked Ella if she would tell ht her to Carville over sixty years ago With the first hint of sunrise filling the s of the cafeteria, Ella breathed in deeply as if to pull the memory from a faraway place She put her shi+ny hands in her lap and intertwined her fingers I wished for a tape recorder, but inmates weren't allowed to have such devices; one of the ured out how to use the parts to build a un
”Do you ed like she didn't understand why I would be so interested Then, with the air of a seasoned raconteur, Ella continued her story
The un drove the truck to Ella's farm and stopped in front of her tenant house, a shack with two rooms and a stove on the front porch The rabbed a han ”Stay put,” he told her
Ella's father was as thick as an oak and tall enough to duck to get through his own front door He fars Ella's brothers helped with the crops, and Ella had planned to join the season Her father must have heard the bounty hunter's han to the side of the house He came in from the field The bounty hunter looked over his shoulder, watched for a moment, and then turned back to finish his job
”My daddy come over to the truck,” Ella said, ”and pick o inside When the bounty hunter finished, he stared at Ella's father, tall and straight on the porch
Ella's father spoke first ”She irl,” he said ”I'm takin' her”
The man pushed his coat back, just like he had at the school, to expose his pistol Ella's father looked down at the gun and repeated, ”I'm takin' her” He must have known that this man they called the bounty hunter wasn't a bounty hunter at all He was hired by the State of Louisiana as a driver He wasn't even a real law enforceh he tried to pass himself off as one He was just a hired hand, paid 10 for each delivery to the leper hoers outstretched toward the porch, and curled his index finger in against his thumb ”Three days,” he said ”If she ain't there in three days, I'll come for her” Ella's father didn't move He knew the man would return Ten dollars was a lot The bounty hunter climbed into his eht,” Ella said ”Daddy kill a chicken We had greens, biscuits, fatback, and punkin' pie We didn't eat like that except for Christh Ella didn't know it at the tiether as a faht, Ella's father handed her a burlap sack he used for gathering turnips In it she placed two picture books, a copy of the Saturday Evening Post Saturday Evening Post, her boots, three or four everyday outfits, and the yellow Sunday dress that had been sewn for a cousin but now belonged to Ella The next , while her brothers were still asleep, Ella and her father left in the dark A neighbor's s to Carville would take two full days
On the slow ride west, Ella sat on the front of the wagon She had never before been allowed to sit alongside her father Along the way, they stopped to have a picnic under a shade tree They picked wild blueberries and ate them on the shore of a pond When they reached the river road near Carville, they parked on the levee and walked down to the Mississippi River Ella put her feet in the ested she put on her Sunday dress She changed behind brush at the river's edge Late in the afternoon, they arrived at the colony gate A man who appeared to expect them went inside to alert one of the sisters
”I ain't never seen a nun before,” Ella said ”Big, white bird wings on her head scaredas she looked at the nun and then back at her father He nodded and pointed toward the Sister Ella, in her yellow dress, walked over to the Sister of Charity, who put her ar They stopped at the door Ella looked back at her father and waved Froain Then she turned and stepped into the building where she would spend the rest of her life
CHAPTER 19
One balht after the 10:00 PM PM count, Link invitedto show uards walked up and down our hallway, yelling that the count had cleared
”Clark Kent gonna see soht,” Link said, as I walked into his room
Link's roommate, Bubba, was from New Orleans Hefor Link's surprise It was the longest I'd ever seen hi remarkable was about to happen
Then, from outside, I heard someone tap on theBubba raised the , reached out his hand, and helped a man climb into the roo into prison?!” I whispered
”Hey,” the man said, in a thick New Orleans accent, ”what are brothers for?”
Bubba's brother Butch was a free uards were stationed at the gate at night The brothers undressed and exchanged clothes
Link, as not very good at whispering, said, ”Tell me this ain't some fucked-up shi+t!”
”Shut up!” Bubba and Butch said in unison Link put his hand over his mouth
Bubba cliround, and scampered away Then he would cliirlfriend aiting with a car Butch, noearing his brother's prison clothes, climbed into Bubba's bunk and pulled the covers over his head
The switch was crazy, but ingenious Inht counts If a guard could see an exposed body part, ere allowed to sleep through the count The syste escaped inmates seemed reasonable But the Bureau could never have anticipated this exchange Tonight, Butch would take a long nap inside our prison and be counted by the guards His convict brother, after an evening in Baton Rouge, would time his return carefully to walk in the shadows thrown by the ancient oaks and tall buildings to take his rightful place
”I gotta find a motherfucker to coot any black friends?”
Bubba wasn't the first person to escape, briefly, from Carville The leprosy patients had used the sah ”the hole in the fence” Jih the hole to er male patients left to dance and drink at a honky-tonk in Baton Rouge The patients spoke freely of their escapes, as if telling old war stories
One patient, Annie Ruth Siined ”I'm Annie,” she said, as she sat with me one day after lunch in the cafeteria
Annie didn't look like a leprosy victiht have mistaken her for a librarian or a retired elens of the disease, except for a slight shortening of the nose Annie Ruth was not much over five feet tall, probably close to seventy-five years old, and not at all self-conscious
Annie Ruth and her husband, when they were younger, had cliular basis Their favorite destination was the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans Annie Ruth told me about their exploits in fine restaurants and expensive hotels, so I assumed they ca h the fence to attend LSU football gaame between LSU and Ole Miss
When I elve, a fans, surrounded by the sar smoke, women in fur coats and a to score The Ole Miss defense held and ild, ju hands But the LSU timekeeper had failed to start the clock on the snap His error added alame With the extra seconds, LSU's quarterback, Bert Jones, threw a touchdown pass to win the gaame in 1972, her face lit up ”We were there!” she said ”I loved Bert Jones”