The Thicket

by Joe R. Lansdale

One time she looked at me when I said that, and said, “You’re telling me God wrote the Bible with his own hand, and in English? And knowing all things, he has no word on the hummingbird and the chicken?”

I tried to say my prayers, but they felt hollow, unlike when I was at home and my family was in the house with me and everything was in order. Prayers seemed fine then, but right now I felt empty.

As for sad about there not being true love and not thinking it is all preordained, quite the contrary. It avoids a lot of disappointment and false expectations.”

“If you are in town, and there are horses running down the streets, coming from both directions, fast, do you look both ways before you cross the street?” “Of course.” “Then you do not have the faith you claim,” he said. “If it is all preordained, then you will be hit or not hit by those horses no matter which direction you glance, because it is all laid out.”

He once said those who refuse to consider what they do are cloaked in the shadow of stupidity, but they enjoy the shade. It is cool and comfortable there. He and the circus were my teachers.