The Revival Page #2

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She put a picture of it up.

I swear, that woman.

It was good.

I'm sorry, babe.

Mine was so much better.

You know mine was better.

Yours was top.

[June] Yeah, mine was top.

I know.

I had both.

It is different.

Well, I'm not gonna like it, so.

(tense violin music)

(machine beeps)

[Eli] Daniel, right?

I'm hungry.

[Eli] Want to come in?

[Woman] Preacher.

Good morning.

We have got to pay this bill

or they're gonna

shut off the power.

God will provide, Miss Martha.

Well, we need him to provide

in the next seven to 10 days

or we're up poop creek

without a paddle.

Thank you, Miss Martha.

Daniel.

Just leave the door open.

You read all these?

Most of 'em.

Yeah.

[Daniel] Hmm.

[Eli] Want to take a seat?

No, I'm all right.

I've been thinking about ya.

Lunch is served.

Sit down.

So, where are you from?

A lot of places.

You're smart, ain't you?

Well, I went to Harvard.

So, no.

[Daniel] I'm not dumb.

[Eli] I know.

That was a joke.

I know what Harvard is.

It's for smart folks.

Well, I have met a lot

of dumb, and smart, people.

Even at Harvard.

I'm not educated,

but I'm smart.

I read Prast.

Who?

Prast.

The last guy that

told me I was dumb,

I told him to shut

the f*** up. (laughs)

He told me he was smart

'cause he reads Prast.

So, now I try to go to the

library every week, or so,

and read a little Prast.

He's French, you know?

I think you might mean...

You never played football

in the mud, did you?

No, I have not.

My mama dropped

me at this orphanage

once for a couple of days.

And it backed up on the

piece of old farmland.

It had this dried out river bed.

But, when it rained, it would

turn into a big old mud pit.

There's nothing harder

than wading through the mud

trying to catch a pass.

Even if it's just a few

feet in front of you.

That's what reading

Prast is like.

It's Proust, not Prast.

Proust.

Proust.

Proust, yeah.

Good.

I got a place for you.

Yeah?

Um.

Yeah.

Why?

Well, you said

you needed a place.

This'll do.

(Eli laughs)

This place yours?

Nah, it's my father's.

He kept it from my mother.

She used to disappear,

then wander back into town

kind of drunk and

broke, you know?

Southern Baptist preachers

can't have alcoholic wives.

What happened to your hand?

You ever been in a fight?

Verbally.

Spiritually.

Do you want to clean that?

A bandage?

You can wash your

hands over here.

See where the towels are.

Ah, here we go.

(Daniel grunting)

Ah.

Oh, man.

I got it, I got it.

All right.

All right.

Yep, sorry.

Okay.

There you go.

You all right?

Yeah.

Let's make your bed, huh?

Mind grabbing that corner?

All right.

Just tuck it in tight.

I got it.

(lighter flicks)

Do you mind not

doing that in here?

All right.

Well, there's a gas station

about a mile down the road

if you need anything.

I'll be back tomorrow

with some food.

Glad this worked out, Daniel.

Have a good night.

(door shuts)

(slow violin music)

What are you doing?

Come on, put the book down.

Oh, yeah?

Mm-hmm.

All right.

Let's get the pillow.

Right, right,

right, right, right.

Yeah.

[Eli] All right.

You never.

There we go, like that.

Feels good?

It's good.

It feels great, that feels

great, that feels great.

Okay.

Ow.

You okay?

Mm-hmm, I'm fine, I'm fine.

It's fine, it's fine.

I'm just a little stiff.

I don't know.

It's just a little stiff,

it's just a little stiff.

Come on.

No.

I don't want you to get hurt.

I won't get hurt, I promise.

[Eli] Nope, nope.

(soft music)

Oh, Preacher.

Emmanuel Baptist

drew 800 this week.

Does it tell how

many of those 800

for the presence of the Lord?

Actually, it does.

These are the saved

and rededicated totals.

Well, Brother Aaron

gives out door prizes.

Oh, Pastor.

There's somebody here for you.

[Eli] Jimmy.

I'm sort of having,

like, feelings.

What sort of feelings?

Missy.

[Eli] Who?

Missy Swan.

Your cousin?

Well, Jimmy.

Aside from the societal stigma,

there seem to be some

health repercussions

for copulating with a relative.

What does the Bible say?

Bible?

That's a great

question, actually,

because in Genesis chapter 29,

Jacob marries his

first two cousins.

They are children of

the 12 tribes of Israel

that from that line came Jesus.

[Jimmy] Jesus was inbred?

I guess so.

I guess the farther you look

back we're all kind of inbred.

Yeah.

[Jimmy] So, there ain't

nothing wrong with it.

No, that's not what

I was trying to say.

The church looks down

on premarital sex.

Okay.

Well, what should I do?

Maybe you should Google it.

See if marrying your cousin

is even legal in Arkansas

and then we'll go from there.

(slow violin music)

See, the key to

making deer steak

is the way you handle

the meat, right?

Requires a certain

tenderness, you know?

You don't want to pound it.

You want to message it flat

so that you can break

up the muscle tissue

without damaging the

texture of the venison.

Right.

Trevor, you know I'm

a vegetarian, right?

(laughs)

Are you F-ing serious?

You know what?

I got chicken in the freezer.

Lord Jesus, thank

you for this food.

Thanks for Trevor and for

the deer that he shot.

I praise you and please bless

this food for our nourishment.

Jesus name pray, amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Dig in.

You need a steak knife?

Ha-ha.

Trevor, why am I here?

Okay, they've been cheatin'.

[Eli] Who's been cheatin'?

Brother Aaron.

He's been doctoring

his attendance records.

Emmanuel Baptist ain't

been drawing 800,

they've barely

been breaking six.

Which is good, dang good.

But, that don't matter.

What matters is he's gonna

be kicked out of the board.

High five.

Good.

(Trevor laughs)

That's great.

Well, I guess we won't have

to have the revival after all.

Not have our annual revival?

It's only annual if

we do it every year.

So, we haven't even started.

Now is the time to strike.

We've got an angry

congregation of 600

just looking for a place to go.

That's not why I preach.

If you don't preach to reach

as many people as you can,

to really change

folks, then why?

You know, I'm

working to change

the collective

consciousness of this town.

What the F does that mean?

[Eli] I'm simply saying

that I think a revival

is not the direction that I...

You have something in you,

something that makes

you want to fail.

[Eli] No, that is not...

Your mama had it, too.

What do you know

about my mother?

Hey, I don't mean

any disrespect.

I'll I'm sayin'

is I have it, too.

It's in me, too.

I called it the self death.

Look, I had a beautiful

wife, a daughter,

a great job driving trucks,

and a pretty classy

double wide at home,

but my self death

wouldn't let me be happy.

It made me resort

to drink, and drugs,

and leather lizards on the road.

Leather what?

It's a woman who'll give

you a handy, or a sucky suck,

for $5 at a truck stop.

[Eli] Oh.

Just forget that.

[Eli] Okay.

It's all behind me now.

My wife took my baby girl,

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