Kepler's 2020 Project in the News:
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The marrow of this story is dark and blood-hot. Long before Jesse Hall or his older brother were born, the general store became River Road Church of Christ in Signs Following. Gone were the hitching posts outside, gone the bustling lunch counter and laughter laced soda fountain. Gone were the men sitting outside talking like they will, in the country. This is tobacco territory where religion is very personal and serious. That church squats in the sun; newspapers covering the windows to keep the curious out or the darkness in. Carson Chambliss set up his brand of religion in that church. Madness and snakes. Those who aren’t faithful stay away, feeling its insidious poison. Later some will say that Chambliss brought that sure, fated vengeance to town. Young Jesse Hall knows about the church by the divide that cleaves his family and probably Stump, his silent brother knows too. Jesse is the unwilling witness, numbed and silenced by secret glimpses of adults acting out their desires fueled largely by Chambliss’s church. 9-year-old Jesse knows in his very bones the maelstrom coming right at him, his family, his town. Madness and snakes. Carson Chambliss’s vengeance in the name of Jesus. Marilyn Smith |
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