“Don’t be touching yer nose like that.” Verna was serious. She rarely took a scolding tone with Sister Georgia. Verna grew up in a time when a person respected her elders in every way and that surely included how you spoke to them.
“I picked at my nose all my life. Ain’t nothin’ you ain’t seen before.”
“I know. I know. But, Sister Georgia, we ain’t supposed to be doin’ that no more. No face touchin’. Them’s the rules.”
“Well that’s just silly. I have t’ blow my nose, I have t’ get dirt outta my eye, I have t’ pick the wax outta my ears. Just silly.”
“I know. I know. Seems like they’ve gone too far. But they has bred these new germs and they done got away from ‘em. And these germs just love sneakin’ in us through our eyes and nose and mouth. Took me awhile to stop. Oh, I still catch myself lifting a finger toward my nose especially, but I try not to touch my face. If you ever got outta this holler you’d see how important it is these days. Folks’ll point and whoop and yell from clear across the street if they catch you touchin’ any part of your face.”
“Don’t say.”
“Mm hm. You can even get arrested for it. Though our boys in blue ain’t done that yet. Ain’t been no arrests in MacDowell County and that’s been noticed up there in Charleston. Last night’s paper said everyone had to do their part. Said they was calling all the sheriffs together to make sure they weren’t downplaying this thing. Said it came from the very top.”
“The Governor?”
“No, the President or maybe the Surgeon General, I can’t rightly remember, but someone there in War-shington.”
“Well I never.”
“I know. It’s quite a change.”
“Well I never go farther out into the world than this porch. So I reckon I’m pretty safe scratchin’ my nose.”
“Oh, ‘course you won’t be arrested. It’s just...we all have to start making this change. It’s evidently mighty important.”
“Did you say they made these here dangerous germs?”
“Don’t know they intended to, but it’s somethin’ about the way they been growin’ crops, you know, on them great big farms. Something to do with that somehow.”
“Playing God then, is that what they been doin’?”
“Kinda sounds like it. But I didn’t understand all of it, so don’t go a quotin’ me on it.”
“Didn’t I always say there weren’t enough god-fearing men among us anymore?”
“Yes, ma’am. You surely did. You’re a righteous woman, Sister Georgia.”
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