The Rust Show

The Legend of the Ominous Bus part 2

 

The lies that are told by preachers can be scary.

 

henrietta and the driver were tooling along highway 61 

 

around omaha they noticed a lot of cars heading in one direction

 

“let’s see where they are going!” said the driver and henrietta couldn’t think of a good reason not to.

 

they got into the line of cars heading into a large drive-in movie theater.

 

if you are young you may not know that in history there were things called drive-in movie theaters where people would drive their cars to watch a movie projected on a big screen. in the early days of these things there would be rows of boxes on posts that you could attach to your car through which the sound of the movie came. sometimes you had to search a bit to find a box that worked. later they replaced the boxes by sending the sound through your car radio.

 

but henrietta and the driver were not destined to watch a movie

 

they were directed by people with flashlights to get in rows of vehicles facing a large stage

 

on the large stage a band was playing and there were huge speakers beside the stage that pumped the sound of the music into the audience

 

lots of people were chanting and singing along with the band

 

the driver and henrietta stepped out of ominous bus and approached the stage

 

suddenly a little man in a big white suit came running to the microphone 

 

HELLO ALL YOU MISERABLE SINNERS shouted the man angrily, his eyes flashing and his red hair making his head look like it was on fire.

 

he started to dance around the microphone hopping and skipping like a fantastic troll or kangaroo thought henrietta and she started to giggle

 

the driver looked at her in alarm and the little man on the stage stopped dancing and stared at her

 

OH SINNERS WE HAVE A LITTLE GIGGLEr OUT THERE IN THE CROWD TONIGHT!!

 

everyone turned to look at henrietta and she tried to hide behind the driver

 

IT IS GIGGLERS LIKE THIS THAT BRING PLAGUE TO THE LAND! shouted the little preacher man and he pointed a long fat finger at her.

 

PLAGUE TO THE LAND chanted the crowd looking at henrietta

 

lets get out of here said henrietta to the driver but he looked around helplessly as they were surrounded by a crowd of what could have been 10,000 people

they felt hopeless as people often do in that situation, even though most people have never been in a similar situation. 

The best they could think of was to get back on ominous bus and close the door, which is what they did.

it was disconcerting when people began hurling rocks at the bus, but the man on the stage soon put a stop to that

brothers and sisters he yelled into his microphone, let not thy hearts be troubled. let be and let go and let god

he said many other words with thy's and thou's sprinkled in here and there, but henrietta couldn't make any meaning out of it and the driver did not speak

henrietta found herself nodding off and in her dreams the man on the stage came to her and spoke

my child my child said the man which henrietta thought was hilarious because she knew she belonged to no one, especially not this guy.

you must submit yourself to the will of the lord and he commands you and me and the ant, the bird and the flea

no one commands me henrietta murmured, not realizing that they were on the road again.