All That Lives by Melissa Sanders-Self Read Free Book Online

that those who did not gave the
     excuse Old Kate worked her slave woman long into the night by the thin light of a single candle, but the more likely reason
     was they did not have charitable hearts. Old Kate’s husband, Ignatius, was a crippled invalid, and we never saw him out-of-doors,
     not even in church. He sat hunched at the front window of their house, on the Adams―Cedar Hill high road, every day of his
     life. They owned a fair piece of property that bordered ours in places, but because of her husband’s illness, Kate ran their
     farm, and it wasn’t much to speak of.
    Her best known eccentricity was her habit of filling with Spirit at our Sunday sermons. We recalled together how tolerant
     was the resignation on the Reverend Johnston’s sturdy face when Old Kate shook the church, falling to her voluminous knees,
     wailing, “He is in me! Jesus, the Spirit of the Lord is in me!” Isolated titters of laughter from members of our congregation
     were usually hidden by the thunder of her declaration and by those who supported her religious impulses and called encouragement
     to her, “Praise the Lord, Kate! O praise the Lord!” The most humorous part came after the Spirit in her waned, and the sermon
     was accomplished and we were released outside. All across the church lawn groups of children gathered, laughing, pretending
     to be Kate Batts filling up with Spirit. Boys rolled on the ground and wailed and though their mothers called “Stop being
     silly!” from behind their gloves, no one was overly concerned, as it was all in fun. It was a happy memory Mother had conjured
     for us.
    We adjourned to the parlor, and Father sat at his desk and drank from his flask for somewhat longer than usual, while John
     Jr. stoked the fire too much, his nervousness as apparent as the bright sparks shooting up the chimney. Richard and Joel sat
     either side of Drewry on the bench, and Mother had me sit before her on the rug, so my hair could be brushed and braided anew.
     Father settled himself in his chair and read slowly.
    “If ye love me, keep my commandments. I be in my Father and ye in me, and I in you.”
    Richard and Joel giggled and made faces, as though they would fill with Spirit, and Mother smiled, indulging them, using her
     fingers to pick out a knot at the base of my neck.
    “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father.”
     I listened, heartened by Father’s reading.
    “God loves me, doesn’t he?” I asked Mother later, when she came to see me settled in my bed.
    “God loves us all,” she answered with certainty and waited at my bedside until I breathed regularly with sleep.

    I awoke in the dark to the distinct sounds of lips, smacking near my ear, and from the foot of my bed came a gulping sound,
     as if some human being were gasping for air. I was terrified and paralyzed with fear, and abruptly my quilt was ripped off
     my body and my braid twisted from behind and pulled so hard my head was raised with a painful jerk off the bed. I feared it
     would be pulled off my shoulders, so violent was the force. I screamed, and heard both Richard and Joel in their bedroom screaming
     too. The gulping grew louder, a sound like someone taking too much liquid in their mouth, being forced to swallow. It sounded
     oddly familiar, and I knew I had heard it before but I knew not where or when. John Jr. came running, with his candle lit,
     and Drewry too came running, but only to light his candle and return to the little boys. With light, all our screaming ceased,
     for we saw nothing apart from our selves and our things in our rooms.
    “Brother, it touched me! It hurt me!” I gasped, reaching out for John Jr’s. hand. I pulled him to sit close beside me on the
     bed.
    “What touched you? What was it? Why were you gulping like that?” John Jr. drew his eyebrows together in inquiry, inspecting
     my face.
    “I was not!”
    “I heard