A STORY by SEAN ENNIS
PERSISTENCE WITHOUT INSIGHT
All of a sudden, this woman at the school board meeting is threatening to come back with the sheriff. She is interested in banning books, but she can't get the crowd excited about suppression. Even the local minister says, “Hold on a minute. That’s a dark path.”
I was standing in the back, ordering a $200 suit on my phone because, eventually, I will have to attend a funeral. Maybe soon. I did not sign up to speak at this meeting, the sheriff did not arrive, and I don’t think that is strange.
This vituperative woman and I don’t share similar aesthetics. I know this. She dresses like a solution in search of a problem, red and white, an ambulance, an exit. To her credit though, the rest of us do hesitate. This is a small town, and she has the equity of redemption. Her opinions are tawdry, moralistic, poorly researched, wrong, but they are clear.
(I won’t linger too much on the obvious pleasure these censors experience reading aloud from the targeted book, in public and official settings. “The young man’s penis,” she whispered to the minister in the lobby, “was in another young man’s mouth!”)
It’s so easy for me to be mean spirited. These people are just terrified. I’ll leave it alone.
The suit arrives.
Or should I leave it alone? Something is praying for me. No, to me. This is how it feels when decency is at your back. I could step it up. I’d like to say more about this.
The suit is blackish, fits reasonably well, but it is not transformative. I look like someone who doesn’t often wear a suit. And it’s a wimpy book they want to ban: it promotes acceptance and vulnerability, not bestiality as was reported in the paper. There is a difference, and reading comprehension scores are way down.
The air pressure is changing, but it's a beautiful summer evening for now. My son texts to say that the game is over, but they’re all going to the waterfall to drink and have sex, and at least here, among the kids, is honesty.
Sean Ennis is the author of CUNNING, BAFFLING, POWERFUL (Thirty West). He lives in Mississippi and more of his work can be found at seanennis.net.