Jim Taylor
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A VERY MINOR PROPHET
Thursday, January 25, 2018, 08:35

A construction strike had shut everything down in Arizona and we were out of work. Being newly married I felt the pressure to provide for my wife and our new life together pretty strongly. Talking with my friends, Terry suggested we go to his home town of Abilene. He had a lot of relatives there and told us we could find work easily. As much as I hated leaving my wife of several months I needed the work and so three of us packed up and headed for Texas.

Outside of Ft. Worth we stopped at Terry's in-laws for the night. They had this little place out in the country. Nice folks but definitely hill-country people. The house had one outdoor type faucet in the kitchen and no other indoor plumbing. All the necessary business was done in a little house out back. A tornado had removed some of the siding but it allowed you to see the traffic on the road when you were seated there in the morning. The only paper available was a phone book. I used all the "M's" while we were there.

At home was Ma and Pa, baby brother and baby sister. Baby sister was around 19 and about 10 months pregnant .. being several weeks over-due. Baby brother was somewhere between 17 and 18. Shortly after we arrived big sister showed up. She was a gal in her 30's and she was having trouble deciding who she was gonna stay with .. her husband or her boyfriend. Apparently she was dividing her time between the two which, while it may have kept her happy was causing some grief in the family.

About supper time we got word her husband was gonna show up. She had not been with him for several months and most everyone felt he was not happy about it. When he showed up he was extremely drunk .. so much so that he was having a hard time walking. He could sit up OK so he drove himself over, but getting out of the car was difficult. He rambled around the house making various noises and then sat down in the kitchen against the wall and fell asleep.

Along about then word came that the boyfriend was coming over. Junior - baby brother - ran around the house gathering up guns and knives. He was trying to do his best to keep bloodshed to a minimum. I was sitting in the living room eating a plate of beans. Junior was behind me at the foot of the bed of baby sister. He tried unloading Dad's 30-06 and while I was eating he fired the gun right behind me. Dust came up off the floor and down off the ceiling. I did not hear a body hit the ground so I turned around there was Junior with the rifle, eyes big as saucers. I pulled the gun out of his hands and found he had jacked another shell into the chamber!

Looking at the wall I saw a nice new bullet hole about man-high, going through the wall where drunk husband was sitting on the other side, passed out. I peeked around the corner but the angle of the bullet was upward and it had gone over his head a couple inches and out through the ceiling on the other side of the room. I pointed out the bullet hole in the ceiling and everyone got worried because that was where Grandpa's guineas roosted and if he killed one of Grandpa's guineas there was gonna be hell to pay!

About that time drunk husband's Dad showed up. Someone had called him to come collect his drunk son. Dad was in his 70's. He came in and he was angry. He pulled drunk son out of the chair, shook him and then hit him a hard right that knocked him all the way across the kitchen. Drunk son sprawled on the floor and said "Go ahead. Beat me." and Dad just cussed him. Turns out the old man had been Golden Gloves and still had a mean right cross.

After they left, drunk boyfriend showed up. He stayed outside talking and arguing with Big Sister. Something happened .. I am not sure what .. and they took off running across the yard. Drunk boyfriend hit the clothesline with his throat and nearly did a flip. He landed hard enough that he broke his glasses and cut his face a bit. The sight of blood caused Big Sister to forget whatever problem they had and she started fussing over him like he was serious hurt or something.

At that I called it a night and went to find a bed to sleep in and I had a peaceful sleep for some strange reason. We pulled out in the morning and headed for Abilene. I did not try to share the Gospel with any of them for when we had arrived the night before, Pa met us and told me first thing, "I only read the St. James version of the Bible and I only read the words in red cuz them are the only ones Christ spoke!"

There just ain't much use trying to talk to a man who has it all figured out.