Mama drops me off at Brother Lucas's Wednesday night. He's got a swing on his porch and a big old knocker on the front door. His wife gives us some Hi Ho crackers with grape jelly and fruit punch. Everybody's here but Jonathan Safer. He's got a cold. We go downstairs to Brother Lucas's cellar and all take turns standing next to one of the plywood boards so we can figure out where to cut the hole—not too high for some, not too low for others. Him and Orlin measure down six inches and draw a big rectangle, then we each take turns putting on goggles and cutting the hole with Brother Lucas's jigsaw.
Feels like it could rattle right out of my hand.
We put the three pieces flat out on the floor and hinge them together. Then Brother Lucas gives us some old draw drapes we can use on the opening, and we screw them on.
Jed Bean and Chester Morley don't help much, just go riding around the cellar on Brother Lucas's son's kiddie car. It's me, Orlin Coates, and Chloe doing all the work.
"All right, next we got to list the parts for the play," says Brother Lucas. He writes on a piece of cardboard.
God
Adam & Eve
The Devil
"I'm God," says Orlin. Him being the tallest and the pastor's son, we don't argue.
"I get to be Eve," says Chloe, fluffing out her hair.
"Hey, wait a minute," I say. "There ain't no more girl's parts."
"You could be the Devil," says Chester Morley.
"Maybe I will," I say.
"No, I'm the Devil," says Jed Bean.
"Settle down," says Brother Lucas. He writes two more parts on the board.
Noah
Mrs. Noah
"I think Mary Mae should be Mrs. Noah," says Brother Lucas.
"She didn't do nothing," I say.
"Yes, she did," says Brother Lucas. "She was in charge of the animals."
I'm thinking he's making this up, just to give me something to do, but I always did like Noah's ark. I had me a cardboard one with little plastic animals I used to march around in the dirt. "But how are we doing all them animals?" I say. "I don't want to be in charge of a hundred puppets."
"You draw them on the backdrop," says Brother Lucas.
Oh yes, backdrop. All them animals marching into the ark.
And then Brother Lucas says, "Chester Morley, I want you to be Noah."
Oh no. I'm Chester Morley's wife. Him and his penguin walk. I'd lock myself in a closet before I'd marry Chester.
Brother Lucas writes all our names on the cardboard, then gets a paper bag and pulls out some big old blocks of wood with the ends all narrowed down. "This here's balsa wood," he says. "Nice and light. They's got a finger hole drilled." He sticks his finger up one. "You can carve out a face—or just paint one on if you can't carve—glue on some yarn for hair, attach a body. Get your mama or daddy to help you."
Since Orlin, being God, don't have to make a puppet, Brother Lucas says he can help Jonathan Safer make Adam.
"You boys and girls bring these puppets in next Sunday," says Brother Lucas.
Orlin Coates takes Brother Lucas's empty bag and pulls it over his head. "God here. I think I'll make me a universe."
And then, I don't know why, I just can't stop myself, I say, "Is this really the way God done it?" I'm the only one in my Sunday school class that goes to DeSailles North, the only one that has Miss Sizemore.
"What do you mean, Mary Mae?" says Brother Lucas.
"Did God really make the world the way it says in the Bible?"
Orlin Coates pulls the bag off his head, crosses his arms like a school principal. "Mary Mae, I'm surprised at you."
"The Bible is God's holy word," says Chloe, and she's glancing from me to Brother Lucas, shaking her hair all over her shoulders, looking at me like I'm lost to Hell.
Jed Bean and Chester Morley ain't paying no attention, just pretend fighting with yardsticks.
"Mary Mae, this puppet show has a purpose," says Brother Lucas.
Orlin's folding the paper bag up all perfect, like he never had it on his head. "It's to show us the true Creation," he says.
***
Mama picks me up and wants to hear all about the making of the puppet stage. "We didn't do nothing like that when I was in Sunday school," she says.
We get home, and she finds an old yellow and white checked apron, says I can use it for Mrs. Noah.
"They didn't have checks in them days," I say.
"How do you know?" says Mama.
"Because I seen the pictures. They weared stripes, like Joseph's coat of many colors."
"We don't have no stripes," says Mama, "so you're just going to have to use this." Mama don't like buying things she don't have to. She runs up a yellow checked puppet's body on her portable sewing machine.
"Looks like a housewife," I say.
"That's exactly what she was," says Mama. "Now get you some hair and paint on a face, and you'll have you a real nice puppet."
Only color yarn I can find up in the attic is blue, so I glue it on, but I don't know how to carve, so I just paint on a face with poster paint. I do a pink mouth, orange cheeks, and purple eyes.
And I set Mrs. Noah on a pop bottle on my dressing table.