Blood and Oranges by James Goldsborough (latest books to read txt) 📗

to the Temple of the Angels. Buckle up: Tonight we’re going to be—‘TAKING A RIDE!’”

♦ ♦ ♦

The curtain goes up on a stage plunged into darkness. A spotlight snaps on. On center stage sits Willie’s Chevy roadster, top down, white sidewalls shining, waxed and buffed blue metal gleaming under the spotlight. Dressed in a pleated white flapper skirt trimmed in cardinal and a white sweater with a large gold “C” across her handsome chest, Angie l’Amoureux runs on stage followed by a young man in slacks and sweater of identical colors.

“Jenny and Pete are going to a football game at the new Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum,” Willie narrates from side stage. “They’re admiring Pete’s new Chevy roadster, and talking about the glorious day ahead. No classes, no studies, no homework. It’s Saturday, the day of THE BIG GAME! They climb in, Pete starts it up and they begin their drive across the city, top down, heading for the coliseum and the big game. Look there! Pete has produced a flask and passed it to Jenny. I wonder what’s in it.”

Nervous laughter peals through the building. A movie rolls in the background as Willie describes the scene. The audience sees familiar city landmarks as the car crosses town—Westwood Tower, May Company, Daily News building, city hall, Washington Park where the Los Angeles Angels play baseball, USC campus.

“And suddenly, there it is,” cries Willie, “Los Angeles’s own coliseum, the city’s new pride and glory, seating seventy-six thousand. The largest stadium west of the Mississippi!”

Willie paints the scene: cars, buses and trolleys arriving from everywhere; people streaming down Figueroa and across Exposition Park from the USC campus carrying bags, hampers, blankets. Bands play as people climb to their seats, cheerleaders bark instructions, the crowd cheers, the teams enter the field from under the stadium. Henry Callender has made a recording of all the sounds, which boom out over the radio waves.

The curtain falls so the stage crew can change the scenery. The announcer comes out during the changeover, this time bearing the blue Lux box with the big red dot. He holds the box high so the congregation can see it: “Lux soap flakes,” he cries into the microphone. “Keep undies lovely up to three times as long.”

The curtain rises and sounds of the game fill the temple from a dozen loudspeakers. Jenny and Pete are in the stands with their friends. Flasks are passed. Willie describes the game, the crowd, the drinking, the action. The temple remains hushed, no one knowing where he is going with the theme, taking a ride. Surely he has in mind more than another sermon against alcohol. Or does he? “These young people are drinking in public,” he says. “What do we read in Proverbs 23:21? ‘The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty.’”

Suddenly, he stops. The sounds of the game fade away. Silence.

“When the game is over,” he intones, his resonant preacher’s voice dropped to a lower pitch, “Pete wants to take a drive. With night falling, he decides to head up into the foothills that surround our beautiful city. He wants Jenny to have a good view of the city at night.” The film background starts rolling again.

“And that’s not all Pete wants.”

Deathly silence in the temple. A single spotlight illuminates the parked roadster, lights twinkling in the background.

“And now, my friends,” whispers Willie, “what does Jenny do? She’s a little tight, maybe even a little drunk. She’s not a big girl. It doesn’t take much.” He pauses, thinking of Angie, his mind drifting. “Like so many of us, Jenny is new to Los Angeles. She is a good girl. She is a church-going girl. She is a Christian girl. JENNY IS A VIRGIN! She knows that sex outside marriage is a sin. She’s come to Los Angeles from Pennsylvania or Kansas or Texas, and she knows—at least knows when she is sober, that one mistake can put her life in danger, physically, morally, that one mistake can ruin her, that one mistake can KILL her!

“WHAT DOES JENNY DO?” he shouts.

Not a sound is heard. The vast building, every seat filled, is as if empty.

“Look at the car—think of that car, my friends. The car has three forward gears. Jenny and Pete are in first gear. They are kissing. Now ask yourself this: What about Pete? Is Pete a lowlife, a louse who would willingly take advantage of this tipsy girl? Of course, he isn’t. Pete is a good boy, a college boy, a decent fellow who would never set out to ruin a girl’s life.”

Willie’s voice falls lower. “But Pete is tipsy, too. Pete wants to go faster, to put the car in second gear.”

From the rear of the temple comes a loud shout of “NO!” called out by a member of the staff. Quickly it echoes around the temple—“NO! NO! NO!”

“But, YES! YES! YES! my friends,” shouts Willie back at them. “Pete wants to shift gears. Look, he is moving his hands onto Jenny’s body, moving them places they shouldn’t be, to private places under her clothes, warm places. Pete knows about cars. After first gear comes second. He is shifting gears, giving in to—TEMPTATION!”

This time the shouts from the audience are spontaneous. “NO! NO! NO!”

“What does Jenny do? She pushes his hands away, but they come back. She pushes again, and they come back again. The third time, she doesn’t push. She’s a little tipsy, a little tired—and yes, a little aroused. Clothes are unbuttoned and removed. Pete will say later that he’s not responsible for Jenny’s death. The gears in the car became automatic.”

“Strike him dead, Lord,” someone shouts.

“RUINATION!” answers Willie.

The curtain falls.

More than five hundred people declare themselves for Christ that night and $11,473 is offered to the church in gilded plates. The show has touched a chord with God’s little people, people who have come from across the country to make Los Angeles their new home, people escaping the sin and corruption of the East, people determined