“Well, how’d you know it was Him, Jimmy, is my question.”
“I just knowed it.”
“Now, how’d you ‘just knowed’ somethin’ like that? You don’t ‘just know’ that somebody’s the Lord Jesus Christ returned to Earth.”
“Some things you just know, Clint. Like, instinctually.”
“What’d He look like?”
“About what you’d expect, really. Beard, white robe. Belt made out of a piece of rope. Sandals. Kind of a short fella. He didn’t look too good, to tell you the truth.”
“So where’d you run into Him again?”
“Out on the side of the road, by US 385.”
“Over acrost from the Peach Tree?”
“That’s the one.”
“What was He doin’, headin’ over there for a cup of coffee or somethin’?”
“Now, see, that’s what I figured. I reckoned He was a hitchhiker or similar, and I was God’s honest truth gonna tell Him to move right along because we didn’t want nobody in the Peach Tree puttin’ the touch on us. But as soon as He opened his mouth, I knowed he was the Savior.”
“And how’d you know that? On account of He told you so?”
“Well, on account of He spoke Aramaic, for one thing.”
“Arawhovic? You mean like an A-Rab? I thought you said it was Jesus, not Moo-hammed.”
“No, that’s Arabic, you numbnuts. This was Aramaic He was speakin’.”
“And how in the hell do you come to speak Aramaic, Jimmy? You don’t even talk English good.”
“You know how I got that little teevee out in the barn, and I watch it when I’m milkin’?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, all that’s on in the early morning save for them damn woman shows is Home Extension University on the public television channel. So I just picked it up.”
“All right, all right. What’d He say?”
“As you might ‘spect, it was His second coming. Only He was havin’ all kinds of problems.”
“Problems? What you mean, problems? He’s the son of God, for corn sake, Jimmy.”
“Now as it happens, Clint, that’s one of the problems. The way He tells it, the Old Man don’t keep too much up on current affairs. He’s too busy watchin’ every sparrow fall and what have you. Don’t even own a dish or nothin’. So has far as the Old Man’s concerned, ain’t nothin’ changed for two thousand years.”
“You’re shittin’ me.”
“Don’t kid a kidder, Clint, is what I always say. So God sends Jesus down here, don’t give Him no cell phone, don’t give Him no blue jeans or walkin’ shoes, don’t give Him no car, don’t even teach Him to speak English. Kid looks like a rat’s nest and don’t smell so good neither. And he’s out here, in Dalhart. God just plunks Him down any ol’ where, figures He’ll get to where He needs to be. Poor kid ain’t got no road atlas or GPS or nothin’. Hell, if I hadn’t come along, He mighta run into Bert Klum down at the Lions Hall, and then He’d be in a right mess. Bert probably shove a pool cue up His ass thinkin’ he’s a crankhead.”
“So…so what happened?”
“Well, it turns out He gots all these speeches He needs to deliver, right? Sermons and whatnot. So as to save the world, I guess. And He tells me He needs to get to where all the action is, so He can get peoples’ ears. So He asks me if I know how to get to Jerusalem.”
“Oh, Lord.”
“You said it. I told him I don’t think that’s really the right place for Him right now. I didn’t go into much detail, understand me. I just suggested He oughtta think about maybe Hollywood, or at least Nashville.”
“Good thinkin’.”
“Well, He wasn’t havin’ none of it. He said it had to be the Holy Land or at least the greatest city in all the world, which He didn’t know what was what. He kept talkin’ about places like Antioch and Thessalonika.”
“So what’d you do?”
“Well, what could I do, Clint? He’s Jesus. I can’t just disobey Him, now, can I?”
“Oh, Jimmy, you didn’t.”
“I drove Him down to Dallas and took Him to Love Field, and got Him a ticket for…”
“No.”
“…New York City.”
“Jimmy…”
“What other choice was there, Clint?”
“Jimmy, do you know what deicide is?”
“A little bit.”
“Do you know what punishment that feller Danty prescribes for deicide?”
“I can’t rightly remember, Clint, now you come to mention it.”
“You better hope Satan brushes his teeth regularly, Jimmy, is all I can say.”
“Yep.”
“Yep.”
“I reckon.”