Read Soul of a Whore and Purvis for Free Online Page A

never grubbed on a grave! You slander me!
    I think you’re addled by the heat!
    I think you’re positively shatterpated!
    MASHA : ARLENE.
    GRANNY BLACK:       Lonnie?
    MASHA :                                ARLENE.
    GRANNY BLACK:                                      Is it… ? Lonnie …
    MASHA : I’ll see you tonight.
    GRANNY BLACK:                 Lonnie…
    MASHA : Sleep, sleep, Arlene. I’ll see you tonight.
    GRANNY BLACK: All right, Lonnie. Yes, my love…
    SYLVESTER :                                                            My Lord.
    I’ve never seen her do like that. Uh…Uh…
    BILL JENKS : DEMON!…DEMON!…DEMON! NAME YOURSELF!
    MASHA : In whose name do you cast me out, Healer?
    SYLVESTER : That’s a damn good question. Who exactly
    Asked you to the party, anyway?
    In whose name do you cast out demons?
    BILL JENKS : I cast out demons in my own damn name.
    JOHN : That ain’t gonna work.
    BILL JENKS :                           You’ll watch it work!
    SYLVESTER : Now uh uh this disturbed young gal and I
    Have got a sort of system up and running,
    And your insertion of uh uh yourself
    Is absolutely unacceptable.
    BILL JENKS : NAME YOURSELF!
    SYLVESTER :                                    JACKHAMMER!
    BILL JENKS :                                                                  …What?
    I beg your pardon? Demon name yourself?
    SYLVESTER : Jackhammer Jake! I batter this man’s throat.
    SYLVESTER howls and shakes.
    BILL JENKS : To tell the truth, I wasn’t expecting this.
    Hold him down, John.—Don’t let go of her !—
    Pry them jaws. Wider…Jackhammer Jake!
    BJ spits on his finger and touches it to SYLVESTER ’ s tongue.
    SYLVESTER : Uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh
    BILL JENKS :                                        Jackhammer Jake!
    As Jesus promised in the Gospel of Mark
    That we shall cast out devils and lay healing
    Touches on the sick, I touch you now!
    Unloose the string on this man’s tongue! Begone!
    [ SYLVESTER calms. ]
    â€¦Now tell me, what did Peter Piper pick?
    SYLVESTER : He picked your nose, you meddling piss, and I’d
    Pay money to see him shove it up your hole…
    Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
    Rubber baby buggy bumpers—wow.
    This Mumble-Stumb’s red-dogged my vocalize
    From minute one. I had full-on, obscene
    Tourette’s till Mama whipped it out of me.
    But let’s just stop this tent revival here—
    Before you get me past the point of cure
    And on into the tongues and rattlesnakes.
    You gotcher cookies. Come, girl, let’s go home.
    BILL JENKS : DEMON! NAME YOURSELF! NOW!
    MASHA :                                                                    Dark
    Delight.
    Dark Delight at Manor Downs. Fifth race!
    SYLVESTER : One down! All right, now, where’s my sheet—
    Back off now. Give her room. Give me my sheet!
    I’ve lost my light—Don’t you turn the lights on?
    CLERK : Once in a while. But I never like what I see.
    BILL JENKS : Let me do my work.
    SYLVESTER :                                  I need that demon!
    MASHA quakes at BJ ’ s approach.
    JOHN : You can’t expel a demon in the name
    Of nothing but yourself—it’s blasphemy.
    BILL JENKS : Just let me take a whack at it. You’ll see.
    JOHN : It’s