Lincoln in the Bardo(48)
Our interference on that occasion had, it must be said, left blood on our hands.
I had vowed, there and then, never again to participate in that practice.
But my affection for the boy, and my sense that my earlier inattention had compromised him, caused me now to renounce that oath, and join my friends.
the reverend everly thomas
Dashing out of the white stone home, run-skimming as fast as we could, the three of us closed rapidly on Mr. Lincoln.
roger bevins iii
Then leapt.
hans vollman
Into the President.
roger bevins iii
The crowd swarming around us.
hans vollman
Several bolder individuals, inspired by our example, also made to enter.
the reverend everly thomas
By first taking exploratory runs through the President, or brushing glancingly against him, or darting into and then out of him, as a loon might break the surface of a lake to seize a fish.
hans vollman
Mr. Cohoes, outspoken former boilermaker, matching Mr. Lincoln’s pace, strolled into him from behind, and stayed there, moving identically within him, stride for stride.
roger bevins iii
Nothing to it! Cohoes said, his voice gone high-pitched with the audacity of the act.
the reverend everly thomas
All were now emboldened.
hans vollman
Soon it became a general movement.
roger bevins iii
No one wishing to be excluded.
hans vollman
Many individuals encroaching upon one another— the reverend everly thomas
Entering one another— hans vollman
Becoming multiply conjoined— roger bevins iii
Shrinking down as necessary— hans vollman
So that all might be accommodated.
roger bevins iii
Mrs. Crawford entered, being groped as usual by Mr. Longstreet.
hans vollman
The stabbed Mr. Boise entered; Andy Thorne entered; Mr. Twistings entered, as did Mr. Durning.
roger bevins iii
The Negro contingent, having broken free of Lieutenant Stone and his patrol, came therein; Stone and patrol, offended by the notion of proximity to those persons, declined to follow.
the reverend everly thomas
The Barons were now therein; Miss Doolittle, Mr. Johannes, Mr. Bark, and Tobin “Badger” Muller were therein.
roger bevins iii
Along with many others.
hans vollman
Too many to enumerate.
the reverend everly thomas
So many wills, memories, complaints, desires, so much raw life-force.
roger bevins iii
It occurred to us now (as Manders, lantern held high, preceded the President into a grove of trees) that we might harness that mass power, to serve our purpose.
hans vollman
What Mr. Vollman had been unable to accomplish alone— roger bevins iii
Perhaps all of us, working as one, might.
the reverend everly thomas
And so, as the lantern-light fell out aslant before us, I requested that everyone therein, all at once, exhort Mr. Lincoln to stop.
hans vollman
(We would stop him first, and, if successful, endeavor to send him back.) the reverend everly thomas
All willingly agreed.
roger bevins iii
Flattered to be asked to do anything at all, or participate in the slightest thing.
the reverend everly thomas
Stop! I thought, and that multitude joined me, each expressing that impulse in his or her own manner.
roger bevins iii
Pause, cease, self-interrupt.
hans vollman
Desist, halt, discontinue all forward motion.
And so on.
the reverend everly thomas
What a pleasure. What a pleasure it was, being in there. Together. United in common purpose. In there together, yet also within one another, thereby receiving glimpses of one another’s minds, and glimpses, also, of Mr. Lincoln’s mind. How good it felt, doing this together!
roger bevins iii
We thought.
hans vollman
We all thought.
the reverend everly thomas
As one. Simultaneously.
hans vollman
One mass-mind, united in positive intention.
roger bevins iii
All selfish concerns (of staying, thriving, preserving one’s strength) momentarily set aside.
the reverend everly thomas
What a refreshment.
hans vollman
To be free of all of that.
roger bevins iii
We were normally so alone.
Fighting to stay.
Afraid to err.
hans vollman
We had not always been so solitary. Why, back in that previous place— the reverend everly thomas
We now recalled—
hans vollman
All instantaneously recollected— the reverend everly thomas
Suddenly, I remembered: the showing up at church, the sending of flowers, the baking of cakes to be brought over by Teddie, the arm around the shoulder, the donning of black, the waiting at the hospital for hours.
roger bevins iii
Leverworth giving Burmeister a kind word at the lowest moment of the bank scandal; Furbach drawing out his purse to donate generously to Dr. Pearl, for there had been a fire in the West District.
hans vollman
The handholding group of us wading into the surf to search for poor drowned Chauncey; the sound of coins falling into the canvas bag crudely labeled Our Poor; a group of us on our knees weeding the churchyard at dusk; the clanking of the huge green soup pot as my deacon and I lugged it out to those wretched women of the evening in the Sheep’s Grove.