Read Online Soul of a Whore and Purvis by Denis Johnson - Free Book Online Page B

Haunt the mortuaries.
    Give ’em the razzle-dazzle of your gift
    And see if anybody cheats the grave…
    â€”What’s the matter with him now? My God!
    BILL JENKS : The demon’s agitated. SETTLE DOWN!
    â€¦I wonder where you know my assistant from?
    WILL : Morticia? Man, I’ve seen that honey shake
    Her titties! You a preacher, or a pimp?
    BILL JENKS : The line between the two is faint. I think
    It moves. I’ve found myself on either side.
    WILL : You didn’t move yourself?
    BILL JENKS :                                 Not to my knowledge…
    Maybe…If I moved, I didn’t feel it…
    Well, I just had to ask. Not my affair,
    But I was curious. Now you can leave.
    WILL : You think you’re safe alone? I mean, he’s strong—
    He may be out of it, but—
    BILL JENKS :                                    I’ll be fine.
    WILL : The Lord protects you.
    BILL JENKS :                           I believe he does.
    WILL : You trust in the Lord.
    BILL JENKS :                          I find him predictable…
    We’ve got three this week. Uh. Tuesday, Wednesday,
    I think Thursday…Thursday?
    WILL :                                                  So do we.
    BILL JENKS : Yes, three…Three executions in three days?
    WILL : Hey, I don’t make the reservations, boys.
    I just fly the plane.
    BILL JENKS :                      Here and yonder,
    Even in prison, I’ve met up with good
    And decent people. But…How do you say this?…
    I’ve never met one in the mirror.
    WILL :                                                  …Yeah…
    O well, that’s life, huh?
    BILL JENKS :                             That’s life on Death Row.
    WILL : I don’t get you. Do you believe, or not?
    Do you really heal? And cleanse these souls
    Of maladies and spirits? Do you care?
    BILL JENKS : The gift is real, but I just turn a buck.
    I turn a buck, he executes his vague
    Intentions on a baffled universe:
    Win-win…Of course, he screws with me.
    That’s his style—the gift, and then the gag.
    And in return I fail to reverence him,
    Fail in gratitude. I fail to love him.
    WILL : Wow! You are an existentialist.
    It’s a little hard to see that message landing
    Anywhere. It’s no surprise you’re bankrupt.
    BILL JENKS : Aah, they’re just watching television, man.
    I tell it like I see it, but I doubt
    There’s anybody listening. Faith is scary.
    Faith affords its consolations, sure—
    By opening the maw to the dark depths
    Where going blind and getting lost and hurt
    Seem understandable and natural,
    And all night long two graces fall like rain:
    A tragic sense of life, and hope of Heaven.
    WILL : Are grace and Heaven all you’ve got to offer?
    Man, I’ve watched one hundred twenty people
    Die because I killed them with a button.
    I’ve seen them breathe their last—the air
    Goes out, and out, and then they kind of shiver
    And there’s this second where you know it’s over
    And it ain’t never gonna start again.
    â€¦On summer evenings I sit on my porch
    And listen to this train that comes along.
    I listen to the wheels bang on the tracks,
    I listen to the whistle drag the air
    And fill the world, and fade, and leave it empty,
    And I am gonna tell you: Heaven never
    Dreamt of anything as sweet as that:
    To listen to a train and not be dead.
    VOICE ON RADIO: Insects are often the only witnesses
    To a crime.
    BILL JENKS [ to SIMON ]: Did you turn that thing on?
    WILL : It wasn’t me.
    BILL JENKS