The Second Doublewide on the Right, part 85

I’m Fixin’ To present part 85 of The Second Doublewide on the Right:

The rules for “lights out” in the Ocmulgee County Jail didn’t go into effect until midnight. During the time prior to that Reverend Ricky Lee Jones had told some bible stories to Quantavious and Jimmy Ray, including the one about how it had taken the Apostle Paul two years of praying after he was put in prison in Jerusalem, charged with teaching against the power of the Roman authorities, before God had freed him when a miraculous earthquake took place and toppled down the doors of his prison.

“I don’t mean the Lord might throw our cell door open,” the reverend had informed his congregation of two, “what I do mean is that if we pray hard enough and long enough He might see fit to set us free. I don’t mean tonight, but maybe Tuesday, or in his own good time.”

When the lights went out at midnight Ricky Lee, Quantavious and Jimmy Ray all three dropped to their knees on the hard concrete floor. The reverend did most of the praying, but several times early in their effort, he coaxed and coached the other two on how to pray for forgiveness and deliverance.

The lights came on in the jail at six a.m. on Monday morning with a flickering that rapidly turned into a blinding and stark unpleasant brightness. Ricky Lee was the only one still on his knees. He didn’t know what time they had quit on him, but they had.

They were both beginning to rouse up as he was crawling into his bunk.

Quantavious was the first one to speak, with his hand shading his eyes. “Sorry, rev, but I kept falling asleep on the floor and the next thing I knew these dang lights come on.”

“Same thing happened to me,” Jimmy Ray said in a gravelly morning voice. “I can’t believe you stayed at it all night!

Doggone, you sure can pray!”

“It’s all right fellers,” Ricky Lee reassured them, “you both prayed long and hard. I asked the Lord to forgive you both after you went to sleep.”

About that time they were summoned out of their cell for breakfast. Afterwards, they were escorted back to their cell where they all three took to their bunks and fell fast asleep.

Ricky Lee was having a sweet dream in which he and Marthalene were frolicking about in his church apartment, when he was awakened by someone repeatedly calling out Quantavious’ name.

It turned out to be a detention officer who was standing over him attempting to wake him up. “Carter! Wake up! You got a lawyer waiting to see you.”

After they left, the reverend tried to go back to sleep and get back into his dream, but that never worked. He did go back to sleep and the next thing he heard was the cell door opening and closing. Then Quantavious had him by his shoulder, shaking him awake.

“Hey, rev! you need to wake up. It seems like me and you got us the same lawyer. He was on his cell phone when I left,but he said he was gonna be sending for you in a little bit.”

Ricky Lee sat up on his bunk, shaking the cobwebs from his mind. “What’s his name?” he asked.

“Folks call him Slick, but his real name is D. Walter Waddell, and my Uncle Willis said his reputation lives up to his nickname.”

“Did it seem like our prayers helped out any?” Ricky Lee asked.

“It seems like they might have. Slick said we was lucky ‘cause court is scheduled for tomorrow morning and he got us on the calendar, otherwise we could all be staying in this jail for a while. He said we gonna enter a plea of not guilty tomorrow and I’ll be fixin’ to get my tail out on bail!”

(www.teddunagan.com)