John Grady looked up. Where’s that radio station comin from? he said.
That’s Del Rio, said the counterman.
He got to Del Rio about four-thirty in the afternoon and by the time he found the Blevins house it was getting on toward dark. The reverend lived in a white frame house with a gravel drive and John Grady dismounted at the mailbox and led the horses up the drive to the back of the house and knocked at the kitchen door. A small blonde woman looked out. She opened the door.
Yes? she said. Can I help you?
Yes mam. Is the reverend Blevins at home?
What did you want to see him about?
Well. I guess I wanted to see him about a horse.
A horse?
Yes mam.
She looked past him at the standing animals. Which one is it? she said.
The bay. That biggest one.
He’ll bless it, but he wont lay hands on.
Mam?
He wont lay hands on. Not on animals.
Who’s out there, darlin? called a man from the kitchen.
A boy here with a horse, she called.
The reverend walked out on the porch. My my, he said. Look at them horses.
I’m sorry to bother you sir, but that aint your horse is it?
My horse? I never owned a horse in my life.
Did you want him to bless the horse or not? said the woman.
Did you know a boy about fourteen years old named Jimmy Blevins?
We had a mule one time when I was growin up. Big mule. Mean rascal too. Boy named Jimmy Blevins? You mean just plain Jimmy Blevins?
Yessir.
No. No. Not that I recollect. There’s any number of Jimmy Blevinses out there in the world but its Jimmy Blevins Smith and Jimmy Blevins Jones. There aint a week passes we dont get one or two letters tellin us about a new Jimmy Blevins this or Jimmy Blevins that. Aint that right darlin?
That’s right reverend.
We get em from overseas you know. Jimmy Blevins Chang. That was one we had here recent. Little old yeller baby. They send photos you know. Snapshots. What was your name?
Cole. John Grady Cole.
The reverend extended his hand and they shook, the reverend thoughtful. Cole, he said. We may of had a Cole. I’d hate to say we hadnt. Have you had your supper?
No sir.
Darlin maybe Mr Cole would like to take supper with us. You like chicken and dumplins Mr Cole?
Yessir I do. I been partial to em all my life.
Well you’re fixin to get more partial cause my wife makes the best you ever ate.
They ate in the kitchen. She said: We just eat in the kitchen now that there’s just the two of us.
He didnt ask who was missing. The reverend waited for her to be seated and then he bowed his head and blessed the food and the table and the people sitting at it. He went on at some length and blessed everything all the way up to the country and then he blessed some other countries as well and he spoke about war and famine and the missions and other problems in the world with particular reference to Russia and the jews and cannibalism and he asked it all in Christ’s name amen and raised up and reached for the cornbread.
People always want to know how I got started, he said. Well, it was no mystery to me. Whenever I first heard a radio I knew what it was for and it wasnt no questions about it neither. My mother’s brother built a crystal set. Bought it through the mail. It come in a box and you put it together. We lived in south Georgia and we’d heard about the radio of course. But we never had actually seen one play with our own eyes. It’s a world of difference. Well. I knew what it was for. Because there couldnt be no more excuses, you see. A man might harden his heart to where he could no longer hear the word of God, but you turn the radio up real loud? Well, hardness of heart wont do it no more. He’s got to be deaf as a post besides. There’s a purpose for everthing in this world, you see. Sometimes it might be hard to see what it is. But the radio? Well my my. You cant make it no plainer than that. The radio was in my plans from the start. It’s what brought me to the ministry.
He loaded his plate as he talked and then he stopped talking and ate. He was not a large man but he ate two huge platefuls and then a large helping of peach cobbler and he drank several large glasses of buttermilk.
When he was done he wiped his mouth and pushed back his chair. Well, he said. You all excuse me. I got to go to work. The Lord dont take no holidays.
He rose and disappeared into the house. The woman dished out for John Grady a second helping of the cobbler and he thanked her and she sat back down and watched him eat it.
He was the first one to have you put your hands on the radio you know, she said.
Mam?
He started that, Puttin your hands on the radio. He’d pray over the radio and heal everbody that was settin there with their hands on the radio.
Yes mam.
Fore that he’d have people send in things and he’d pray over em but there was a lot of problems connected with that. People expect a lot of a minister of God. He cured a lot of people and of course everbody heard about it over the radio and I dont like to say this but it got bad. I thought it did.