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Sadie is a black woman who at one time was a hell raiser. Over the years it begins to take its toll, and she finds religion. She sometimes cleans my mother’s house and helps out with the kids. She has absolute authority in our home.
Sadie originally lives up the street in the Carver Road development of 20 houses. She is a tough woman; you can tell by looking at her. She has a solid, but not fat, build. The tracks of hard times are still on her face.
Sadie arrives at our house in the morning wearing street clothes. She goes immediately to the small bathroom off the kitchen and changes into a uniform that has seen many better days. It is full of large, gaping holes, barely held together by safety pins. It is clinging desperately to life.
The second thing Sadie does is turn on the radio to Reverend Ike’s show. The reverend is an unabashed shyster constantly ordering his followers to send money. And they do.
Reverend Ike’s real name is Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter. His family is partly Indonesian. His favorite slogan is, “You can’t lose with the stuff I use.” Ike never claims to be a Christian and says, “The only savior in this philosophy is you!” He doesn’t ask for donations, he demands them.
Reverand Ike
Ike takes a ‘small’ salary of $50,000 annually from his organization, the United Church Science of Livi ng Institute, theoretically to better guide the spiritual lives of his followers. Today that amount would equal $442,900. However, he has an unlimited expense account, and keeps 16 Rolls Royces and uncounted Mercedes Benzes.
To his audience, he shouts, “I used to be black myself until I turned green!” He writes four books, two of which are titled, How to Call Heavenly Riches Into Your World and You Have to Get Intoxicated to Manifest Your Good. [1]
Sadie swans about the house in a slow pantomime of cleaning. She rests often and sits listening to the radio or reading the Bible. She uses Pine Sol on the floors. For a house with four kids, it’s adequate. Most of the surface dust is moved out of sight, at least, floors look better, and the beds are changed. But once evidence of her casual approach to cleaning is found in a corner of the Scan couch, where a nest of baby mice is discovered thriving underneath the cushions.
Tyler’s bedroom shows signs of a hoarder in training, and eventually Mom tells Sadie she doesn’t have to go in there. His pattern as he gets out of bed is to lift the mess on the floor onto the bed so he can actually walk around the small room. At night, this procedure is reversed.
Early on, Eddie and Jake test Sadie’s mettle. They are at the bottom of the deep back yard. It’s possible they are fighting. Sadie calls the boys several times, then marches out the back, muttering as she heads in their direction. A kerfuffle ensues, and when Sadie heads back, she’s got a boy held tight in each hand. The victim of this engagement is Sadie’s uniform, at the best of times a hiccup away from falling apart.
As she clears the garage, it’s evident that the uniform literally hangs by a thread, and by the time they hit the back door it has given up the ghost altogether, leaving Sadie in her slip.
Both boys receive well-deserved spankings, which are not quite enough to buy back Sadie’s dignity.
[1] Wikipedia
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