Don Bruns: Stuff Dreams Are Made Of

Oleta River Park is right off 163rd street, the Sunny Isle Causeway that runs down to A1A. A1A runs down to South Beach. Distance-wise nothing is that far away. Traffic-wise, it can sometimes take forever. Friday afternoon for some reason the traffic was light and we got to the park a little before four. James parked the truck in our great up-front spot, hooked up water, plugged in our refrigerator, and I sorted out the plates and plastic utensils.

I’d been here before. With Emily. It was a great place to visit, lots of things to do like hike, explore, kayak, and visit the butterflies. CSI Miami and other TV shows and movies shot here on a regular basis, and Florida’s largest urban park had a sense of familiarity. “Could be another big night, Tonto.” James laid out his stained apron. “Look at all the cars.”

“So the meeting starts at five — ”

“And we can visit the tent from five to six. We didn’t do much dinner business until about seven.”

I glanced next door. There was no sign of Bruce Crayer or any of the vendors. Cars pulled into the paved lot, a steady stream of vans and trucks, Cadillacs and SUVs, all depositing the faithful where they could walk to the faded yellow salvation tent.

“Apparently the early birds get salvation.” James watched the parade. “Lots of Cadillacs, Skip.”

James’s dad died several years ago. He’d been an entrepreneur, just like his son, but he’d run into a partner who skipped out and left Mr. Lessor with a whole bunch of tax and other financial liabilities. Between prison and cancer, his old man was beat to death, but his biggest regret was that he’d never driven a Cadillac. That defined success for the man. We all have our own definition of success. I watched James, nodding his head up and down almost in respect as every Cadillac rolled past our truck. I knew exactly what he was thinking.

Silently we walked up the path, following the disciples to the open flap. Most of them carried Bibles, and they were dressed in shorts, jeans, Sunday finery, suits, and even bathing attire. It was as if some of them had come straight out of the lagoon, off the beach, or maybe they’d just been kayaking the Oleta River. Em and I had taken that tour one afternoon just last year. I had fond memories of the place.

“You can’t stereotype this bunch. Some look like they’re already rich and famous.” James pointed to a couple of men in suits and ties.

“And then there are all those who look like us.” I looked at James with his one-day growth, his Jimi Hendrix T-shirt and jeans, and me with my cutoffs and uncombed hair.

“The Lord doesn’t care who you are, Skip.” James gave me that big grin. “As long as you come with an open heart.”

“You’re gonna go to hell, James.”

“I go to work there every day, pardner. I’m used to it.”

We worked our way through the thickening crowd, looking for seats on the aisle so we could make a fast getaway when it came time. Halfway to the big stage we found the perfect chairs.

“Look at that stage.” James was staring in awe at the mammoth structure in front of us. It rose probably ten feet in the air, and was maybe sixty feet wide. The stage was covered in a shimmering gold cloth that caught the colored spots from above and reflected blinding patterns of light into the crowd.

“There are three semis parked out to the side of the tent that must carry that thing everywhere.” I glanced up and in block letters probably five feet tall I read,

You will be made rich

In every way so that

You can be generous

On every ocassion

— 2 CORINTHIANS 9:11

“One truck just to carry the message.” James whispered it to me as the throng milled about.

Three podiums graced the glittering stage, each one with a large cross on the front and the two monster screens were mounted on either side of the stage. The Reverend Cashdollar’s huge face and toothy smile covered the screens.

“Wonder how much it takes to fund this extravaganza every night?” James kept staring at the spectacle.

“We’re helping pay for it.”

“Yeah, but think about how much we’re making.”

I had thought about it. We owed Skip’s girlfriend Brook $500, we owed the cost of our basic food products, the money every night to the rev and his crew, cost and maintenance of the truck and equipment, and whatever James was losing in poker. It never seems as good as it seems, if you know what I mean. Or maybe I should be an optimist and think positively. As Tim Holt said in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, “You know, the worst ain’t so bad when it finally happens. Not half as bad as you figure it’ll be before it’s happened.” Then again -

The congregation provided a pretty good sideshow, but as James said, “in the house of the Lord — ” The appointed time grew near and the wooden folding chairs were full as far as the eye could see. It was warm and whatever breeze blew outside was certainly not available under the hot canvas tent. I remembered a song, from the sixties I think, by a guy named Diamond. Neil I believe it was. Something about a hot August night and a revival meeting. A traveling salvation show. That was it.

“Pard, in the wings over there.” James pointed to the side curtains where I could barely make out two figures huddled just off the stage. “I swear that’s the pizza guy. I can tell by the gut hanging out.”

“Stan?”

“Yeah. The guy who had the poker game last night.”

“I can’t tell.”

“I think it’s him. I guess if you’ve been with the rev long enough, you get to go onstage.”

I shook my head. “That’s what I aspire to. Being on stage with the rev. Who’s with him?”

James squinted. “That’s our finance guy. The one who gets the money, Thomas LeRoy.”

I could make out the well-dressed man talking to Stan. The guy would talk, nod, then glance into the palm of his hand. Talk, nod, glance into his hand.

“Thomas LeRoy,” James said it like he was very impressed. “You can see he’s going to his organizer there, making notes or whatever.”

It appeared that Stan was doing the same thing. These two guys didn’t need to carry on a conversation. They could just punch their words, numbers, or thoughts into their organizers and read them.

“Skip, we’ve got to get one of those.”

“What?”

“An organizer, pard.”

I ignored him. “And LeRoy is in charge of all the financial doings of this organization?”

“Son, you’re going to be our business manager when this whole thing gets off the ground, and you’ll make more money than Thomas LeRoy ever dreamed of.”

“Yeah. But you’re the one that’s going to buy me an organizer or a BlackBerry — something so I can look important.”

“I’ll do it, pard.”

There was a hush as the spotlights went dim, then they came up full force, flashing off the gold stage and dancing in wild patterns. From somewhere, a huge organ chord thundered through the tent and a line of men and women wearing multicolored robes paraded onto the platform. Black, white, Oriental, they kept coming until there must have been forty of them. They faced the rear of the stage and, with one unseen command, spun around. Then, in one loud vibrant voice they all started singing with an up-tempo gospel beat.

Free up your spirit, free up your heart

Give to the Lord, get a fresh start.

It’s all in the giving, it’s what you must do.

Rewards from your Father, it’s all up to you.

I remember the lyrics, because I heard them over and over again throughout the hour. Every time the rev wanted to emphasize a point, he’d bring the choir back in for a reprise.

And then, I swear to you, the stage started filling with that phony fog that they used to use in discos back in the seventies. I saw movies of it. It is cheesy and if you’re too close to it the stuff gets in your throat and makes it all scratchy. But it started rolling across the stage, like smoke from a fire, and you could hear over one thousand people gasp. The organ was building to a thunderous volume and through the billowing fog this large black figure in a flowing robe came walking to the front of the stage. The lights hit him perfectly for a moment, a wind machine blowing his robe, and it seemed as if he was the anointed savior. All things considered, I was quite impressed. I glanced at my roommate and saw he was mesmerized. This was so James.