(Lights up on the Chorus. Pastor Fudge stands in the middle of the group.)
AILEEN: (Marking chalkboard.) There's just one more thing to add to this timeline
JON: The first Sunday in October.
AILEEN: About a month after Pastor Fudge's potluck meltdown.
JANNA: The night of our yearly Fall Tent Revival.
AILEEN: The most important sermon of the year. Even more important than Christmas or Easter.
ISAAC: Pop spends the entire year writing this one. He always holds a big outdoor revival so that we take him more seriously. It is real psychological warfare type stuff.
JANNA: He always talks about the dangers of Halloween and spirits and demons and all that stuff.
JON: He always warns the youth to stay away from the pressures and the candy and the what have you.
AILEEN: "Those are Lucifer's tricks to lure in young minds."
ISAAC: But this year is different.
JON: This year the pastor is real on edge.
AILEEN: About Elise.
ISAAC: About a lot of things.
STEVE: The beginning of October—such a big time for our church.
SHARON: The night of the big revival.
VIRGINIA: The night of the hurricane.
MARK: The night of the murder.
BRUCE: The pastor's sermon was real good that night.
MARK: I remember thinking that too.
SHARON: Well would you look at that. The boys agree on something.
VIRGINIA: And you didn't even have to worry about not being able to control the children.
STEVE: Sister Kettering, Sister Hickory, may we please keep the story on track?
VIRGINIA: Watch it young man.
SHARON: I'm nowhere near as old as Virginia and I still have a good number of years on you. Stay out of this.
STEVE: (Giving up) I'll be in the sanctuary.
(He leaves.)
JANNA: You ever sat in church and felt like the pastor was talking right at you? And not even because he saw you sitting in the back messing around, but like the words he had prepared from God or whatever were designed right for you?
JON: But this was the big Fall Revival sermon. We all brought our lawn chairs to the pastor's backyard and sat around the big bonfire, listening to the pastor shout...but outside this time because it was more serious that way.
MARK: The revival is usually in the parking lot of the church but nobody was the least bit surprised that the pastor chose to have it under Elise's tree in their backyard.
BRUCE: It was a real good sermon. Every year Fudge reaffirms what we already know—
MARK: That he is the best pastor in the whole South or Midwest regions?
BRUCE: That he is the best pastor in the—(Beat) Yeah. Can I not finish my own sentences now?
MARK: We can all finish them for you when you say the same damn thing all the time, you boring ol' unoriginal sack-of-flour.
