William Gass - Omensetter’s Luck

These and many others. He saw Absalom alive in the oak and me head of Sheba falling from the wall and Joab's sword entering Amasa. He heard the Lord curse Jeroboam through the mouth of His prophet Ahijah: the dog shall eat those of the house of Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds shall eat those of his house who die in the country, and all of his house shall be consumed as a dry cake of dung is consumed in the fire. He imagined the men of King David at the foot of the wall, the head of Sheba looping over, and Joab running to catch it before it smashed on the rocks, spoiling its features, for the king liked to have the heads of his enemies brought into his presence since he hoped to find the meaning of their death in the final arrangement of their faces. Here is the head of a foolish man, My does he smile so wisely? Fourth face: small moustache and triangular chin, nervously winking eyes… something in them? ah, he's chewing on his tongue… wink tick chew tock, wink wink. You've waited too long, now what's her name's begun, de dum de dum de dum de dum: we rise to praise the living God. Oh no indeedy. Incorrect. The third stone, reddish, small, flat with rounded edges and a glacial nick-the first two having fallen grievously short — was thrown by a ferrety boy in a sailor suit. It skipped twice before turning toward its target, then twice more, quickly, striking the giant between the eyes so that he fell with a groan, shaking the earth. There was generous applause and considerable shouting. A pillar of dust rose from beneath the body, two thousand sneezing. With the clangor of arms the armies collided. Yar. Yar. Yar.

He saw Absalom alive in the oak. The locusts flew up in a cloud and the servants of King David saw them rising and knew where Absalom was. While Joab pierced his heart and ten men struck him, his mule was grazing. Absalom said, ah my father's friend has come, my kinsman; but Joab did not speak, affixing the darts. The head of Absalom then was like the head of Sheba tossed from the wall top and like Amasa's who was murdered on the highway; it was like the head of the Levite's concubine sent as a message to Judah; it was the head of Goliath and the other stone man; it was like the head of Saul and the five kings Joshua had hung in the trees; it was like the heads of thousands brought one by one into his dreams and held by their hair as the oak had held Absalom, all those whom war and plague and treachery had slain, each in the griff of a warrior, and all the heads were smiling in the same way… wisely… and Furber heard King David muttering, why are they smiling? what is the meaning? for head after head, even those with sad eyes or poor teeth, those who met death weeping, were smiling. Everyone stood in a group near me tree, even Jethro, who was shortest. Abner, wearing the ringlet of leaves, had already hid. Ruth, the fat girl, began the chant.

hingle-dy

dingle-dy

this is so sing-a-ly

if we go single-ly

we'll find the crown

Then they all ran, Jethro screaming, bringing his parents running from the house. In the tent with the king there were people on benches, wailing. The king said: shall I cut this child in two? Just so. Someone was playing the piano and everyone rose to sing. Oh I do believe you Lord, I do. Jethro ran to the front, saying: I have seen Absalom alive in the oak. From there his father dragged him, squalling. Never again. No more religious circuses, you understand? Not even a psalm-singing acrobat? A little introductory music please. Ladies and Gentlemen. Let me call your Attention to the Top of the Tent: the Lord of Hosts! all the way from Egypt! floating! in Thin Air! and without Nets! without any Support! of Any Kind! No one Else in the World is Capable of such a Feast! Dum diddy dumm dum, dum daaaa. But it was the stoned man he saw most. When they began throwing he ran to a small hill. Flies drank his sweat. It was only a game called king of the mountain. A stone came out of the sun and struck him just back of the ear. Death in every direction. He staggered drunkenly down the slope into their arms.

ringlet

ringlet

where's our kinglet

king has run away

Furber did not stay long with the later books. He was disappointed with them. Of Revelation he was even a little disdainful. What this saint had dreamed of, Moses and Joshua had done. His book was filled with the wind of trumpets and the insubstantial wings of angels, and while there were cataclysms of all kinds which the emperor's prisoner promised would destroy a fifth or a fourth or a third of the earth, his threats were like those Jethro himself had sometimes shouted from his yard at the bullying fat girl with whom he often played and who had showed him, as Rome he supposed had showed John, her private parts; and in consequence no one whose foot would raise real dust in the road was deprived of his bowels by the sword; for Furber had already read how King David had numbered Israel, angering the Lord, and how the Lord had offered him a punishment for his people: either three years of famine, three months of flight before their foes, or three days of pestilence brought by an angel, and how King David had wisely chosen the latter, saying: let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercy is great; but let us not fall into the hands of man; so Furber felt, even as a boy, that if the Lord really wished to bring the world to a terrible end, He would not toss earth and heaven together or bring forth fire from the ground or roll up the sea like a scroll, but simply withdraw Himself so that the whole earth and the heavens beyond the earth would settle quietly into the hands of man.

I have seen Absalom alive in the oak; I have seen his neck between the branches; locusts flew from his hair. Then a servant of David saw him also and ran to tell Joab. Oh prevent it… prevent it! But Joab has come in his gown of blood to bare the breast of Absalom, while Absalom watches, and find his heart. I have never seen the Lord God. But I have seen Absalom alive in the tree.

Jethro was a priest of Midian, father-in-law to Moses, and a wise adviser. Furber, too, determined to live for the church. But at first it was only the wild times and his own terror that attracted him: the immense stretch of the opposing hosts and the harsh cries of battle, the plagues and the engulfing sea, the cloud and the pillar of fire. Then one morning, his eyes still aching from an unpleasant sleep, he came into the parlor where the Bible lay open on a table before a window, its pages turning in the morning breeze, and glancing idly down he saw these words of St. Paul which seemed to leap from the page to strike him: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." And his heart stopped. There was an immense silence inside him. It was a silence like that which overtook the world while he slept. "They are without excuse." All night he'd been in the tent of David, before the rows of benches and the clapping people. Heads had been brought in, and David, peering at each closely, had asked him again and again: what do you see? why is he smiling? what is the meaning? The head of Goliath. Laughing, David had thrust his finger in its mouth. You're a fish past biting, old friend. Saul. Tears had soaked Saul's beard though he was smiling. David assaulted the head with his spear. How long has this been happening? Saul — dead — is weeping. And no one dared to tell me. The head of Sheba, caught by Joab's running awkwardly, and Joab's own, and many more of David's captains, smiling. What is the meaning? The page curled and blew over. Furber had cried out: yes, that's so; while pans slid noisily in the kitchen. To Jethro they were trumpets. Even now, as he remembered it, his flesh prickled. That terrible night of heads. There was a plague among the people in the tent. They began to groan and fall forward on their faces. David said: let us sing a song of my own composition.