Revival

by Savannah Schroll Guz

Boone bought a Bible, for his house did not have one, and began reading Revelations. He had not opened a Bible since he was a boy, since he had worn western style, hand me down shirts with pearlized snaps and denim collars. He remembered being pushed in front of his adoptive mother, who sat, whenever possible, in the front row at revivals and offered little Boone up to the preacher like a sacrifice. Reverend Franklin Geist swayed with the congregation and shouted, punching the air with a rigid finger long ago been blackened by frostbite. He held Boone’s shoulder with an unyielding grip and spittle flew from his lips as he shouted, encouraging women to “feel the fever of the Lord.” Like religion was an infectious disease.

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Savannah Schroll Guz is the author of "The Famous & The Anonymous" (2004) and the editor of "Consumed: Women on Excess" (2005). She is an art critic for Pittsburgh City Paper and a columnist for Library Journal. Co-founder of the "The New Yinzer Presents" reading series, she is currently working on a novel about quantum physics, the paranormal and the Holocaust. Find her here.