Sin

The opening line is from Little Big Man. When my writing partner read it, I misunderstood and thought she said, "He had a wider sweeping definition of scene than my paw's." Our next session will be face to face, but Skype works really great for this. I didn't really end this piece just left it hanging because we ran out of time.

 He had a wider sweeping definition of sin that my pa's.

And my pa had a sense that was greater than any god’s.

My paw wasn’t one of those holy rollers. No siree bob. He just knew that it wasn’t right to throw trash in the neighbor’s yard, not that we had any neighbors way up here.

He’d talk about the Ten Commandments sometimes at dinner where we were made to sit and eat with good table manners, not that bad table manners were a sin. He thought treating the food that my maw had made with respect was the way to thank her.

“I don’t believe that making a graven image is a sin,” he said. Good thing too, because he carved little dolls for my sister and animals. I still have one of his bears that looked like it could climb a tree or maybe a twig, considering the size.

Now he did think that coveting thy neighbor’s wife a sin. Better to thank the Lord for what we have than worry about what the neighbor has, he'd say.

Thus when I ran into Bill who wanted everyone to fear the Lord and told them so over and over I couldn’t help but compare to my pa.

I met Bill when I’d driven the truck into town to pick up more fertilizer. Bill had taken over the store from John who’d dropped dead of a heart attack behind the counter. We were all worried about what would happen if the store closed, but in less than two weeks it was open under Bill.

“Have you given your life to Jesus?” was one of the first things Bill had asked when I went into the store for the first time.

I know my standard answer of “Maybe,” would not be well received. It was 30 miles to the next store so I didn’t want to get on the wrong side.

 Bill refused to sell anything to Fred because he had cheated on his wife or so the rumors went mostly those started by Bill. Amazing how much dirt can be passed around up here in the mountains.

My goal was to get in to the store today and out before I had to talk to Bill. If wanting to avoid being preached at is a sin, so be it.