The Life of Hope Read Free

tight bodice flew away. (J. B. Hope’s theory about the female bosom seemed beyond doubt at this point.) The red girl ran to the window and pressed her face against the glass. “It’s raining!”
    Hope had to stifle a desire to snap,
Of course it’s raining, we
knew it was raining
. Instead he beamed magnificently and watched the pitchings of the girl’s chest.
    The dour and dark girl said, so quietly that it was almost inaudible, “To wash away the sins of this wicked, wicked place.” J. B. Hope thought initially that she was referring to his own house, number forty-two Dutton Street, but then realized she was being more general and meant the world, or at least the entire state of Massachusetts.
    Meanwhile the red girl seemed to be losing more and more buttons, and the fabric had torn around one of her armpits. Joseph could see the crisp white of an undergarment and a thin slice of red flesh. The entire area around her armpit was damp (a huge area, Hope noted, a wet ring larger than he’d seen on anyone before), and large beads of perspiration sat on the girl’s forehead and upper lip.
    The other girl stood up. She was tall, much taller than Joseph B. Hope, and slender. “I’m going to arise and be baptized, and have my sins washed away,” she announced, much as she might have announced her intention of going to the market. She made for the door, and Hope was reminded of her clumsy gait. Her left foot was in a special boot, one with a three-inch sole. Hope pursed his mouth, as if to spit out some slight bitterness.
    The red girl was now clothed only in her undergarments, although Joseph hadn’t noticed her taking off her dress. It was possible, Hope thought, that the garment had simply blown away from her swelling body. “Yes!” shouted the red girl, and she bolted for the door as though it was somehow important that she precede the crippled girl through it. “Suffer naked children to come unto me!” sang the red girl, and Joseph Benton Hope said, “Actually …” and then fell silent. This was, after all, a Bible study, and he’d had half a mind to explain that the word “naked” was used in a metaphorical sense—maybe even half a mind to admit that the word wasn’t there in the first place, that it should be “little.” But the girls were already outside.
    J. B. Hope moved to his window and looked out upon the streets of Lowell. Across from his house, beside the dark Merrimack, was a boot factory, and Joseph wondered whether it had manufactured the special boot for the crippled girl. (Thecrippled girl was soaking wet and still fully dressed, although she was struggling frantically to remove her clothes.)
    Was it indeed possible, wondered Joseph Benton Hope, that the factory opposite made nothing save boots for crippled feet? (The red girl was now naked, her undergarments slipping to her ankles with the first touch of rain. The rain had mixed with her sweat, and the red girl was glistening.) J. B. Hope pondered, almost idly, how much of this he had wanted to happen. He’d certainly wanted to see the red girl denuded, but hadn’t the Lord already granted him that Vision? (Although, gazing at the red girl through the window, Joseph noted certain discrepancies. Her breasts, for example, were more ponderous, dragged toward her belly by gravity. Perhaps the Vision was of the girl in Heaven, where all is free of earthbound forces.) Hope felt no true desire to have amorous congress with the red girl, although he did have an erection. Hope touched it, shifted it to a more comfortable position. It was J. B. Hope’s theory that his penis was not engorged with blood, as so many thought, but rather with the Spirit of the Lord. Therefore, should he have amorous congress with the red girl, he would merely be placing the Spirit of the Lord directly inside her. (The crippled girl had finally torn off her dress, and she now stood sternly corseted despite her slender frame. The red girl was smiling toward the