The Curse Of The Moloch (12) There was the one whom the spirits played havoc with his limited resistance, and before long he would be on the border of being dead drunk. This chap was always the joker of the group and his drunken antics added to the jollity of the evening which was the usual imitation of a familiar pit boss at the colliery, "Now (hic) d'yar me a' talking to yer (hic) face.. Now ye'll go down (hic) there an'." Laughter followed when the others recognized the slurring voice. The evening ended with the attempt to clear their fuzzy minds before returning to their homes, but their foul breath were the telltale evidence of their sinning. A few attempted to clear their breaths with a chew of tobbacco, but it only added to the foulness of their mouths. Only the joker of the group had a bit of luck in clearing his foggy mind through the spewing of vomit. But the devil didn't mind at the least of the stench of their transgression. He grinned wickedly at his catch as he thought of other pleasures of sin to offer them... � Chapter Twenty-three The bliss of youthful romance entered early in Jeremiah Micaiah's life. The youth was now entering his seventeenth year, a bit taller and broader; his rough-hewed facial features and his hulking body was considered to be handsome to the yearning young ladies. The eager 'gals' preened themselves and jiggled around his youthful body; they tempted him with the pouting of lips, the tempting sight of their virginal breasts protruding from thin blouses, and the 'come hither' looks. Jeremiah's head whirled about this offer of tempting flesh that allowed the touch of his hands and the feel of wet lips. Yet, outside of the offered sensuality, these 'gals' didn't seem right for him. His romantic destiny found its opportunity at one of the Saturday night dances at the Grange Hall. There, in the hall, he was attracted to a tempting 'gal' who caught his fancy. Her name was Sally, a girl plump in her adolescence with the innocence of youth written on her plain features. Before long their eyes met and with the exchange of names accepted each other. They joined the clodhopping dancers and listened to the songs of the hills; and with his few allotted coins he bought the refreshing drinks. They shared their pleasure in the intimacy of the hour. After a couple of Saturday nights of meeting at the hall with its enjoyment of the dance and the pop, there was a suggestion to enjoy the cool Spring weather. The agreement was mutual, and they walked along the woods near the hall at the pleasantness of the early evening. At a dense scrub oak they stopped, and just stared into each other's eyes. Love is a strange word, and this love between Jeremiah and Sally became affection, a devoted attachment; before long their bodies embraced fondly to each other. Jeremiah found gratification in the softness of her tender flesh; and Sally enjoyed the hardness of his growing body. Lips found one another and then the ecstatic touch of hands on covered bodies. This was for the two the entrance into the highest happiness of sensual delight and both reveled in its pleasure. Their love grew in the bliss of the days. They were seen walking through the settlement, hand in hand, with the innocence of youth written on their blushing faces. Jeremiah and Sally celebrated together the every-day events offered by the parish, be it a christening of the new born, the blessed nuptials of friends, or at a wailful funeral. They sat side by side at the gathering of the believers at the stone hut near the forest and listened to the tales told by the three wizened crones. The two were joined in holiness at the chapel services on the Sunday mornings; together they accepted the message of the faith and its edicts. All, both kinfolk and friends approved the sight of their togetherness. Both Jeremiah and his new found love met secretly from time to time, and there they enjoyed ther sensual embrace of their bodies; within these hidden spots they allowed themselves carresses on the uncovered allurment of their tender flesh. Rough hands squeezed the softness of ample breasts; a cool hand touched the hardness of loins; they coursed their hands till they found satisfaction for their sensual release At one time, in the warmth of a summer evening, the couple had found a hidden spot in the nearby forest. There in youthful exuberance, the pair gathered a heap of pine needles and fresh oak leaves. They uncovered their virginal bodies and enjoyed the softness of nature's bed; the coolness of the light winds refreshed their heated flesh. There they lay in the womb of sensuality enjoying the touch of the hands, the kiss on the lips and the embrace of bodies. Sexual delight increased as Jeremiah's lips found and encircled the hardness of nipples till Sally moaned in pleasure; the height of sensuality pitched in fevor as the hardness of manhood was directed by a carressing hand to the whiteness of spreading thighs. Suddenly a screech owl was heard, the whisper of winds rose as the spirits of the night roamed the forest. Both Jeremiah and Sally felt their presence and fearfully embraced themselves; the crackling of the tree branches, the whipping of the leaves increased the rising of their hidden fears of demons and unseen spirits. Without hesitation they quickly dressed and ran from the mysteries of the dark forest; at the point of safety they laughed nervously to cover their fright. Love continued to bloom and at the coming of Jeremiah's eighteenth year there was talk of marriage, a good home and, off course, many children from the coupling of their loins. Miz' Jezebel, Jeremiah's pleased mother, was introduced to Sally. She liked what she saw; that the goodly girl was well boned and sturdy. Miz' Jezebel inner thoughts told her that the girl was well fit to be her son's coming wife. In turn, Sally's folks took a liking to Jeremiah, and they extended him a hearty welcome; they too had the same thoughts of the coming wedded bliss. The promise of the future was abruptly stopped as the scythe of Father Death ended the affair. Some of the good folks said it was an overturned kerosene lamp that caused the flames that consumed the shotgun shack of Sally's family, together with all of its inhabitants. "Didn't 've a might of a chance. Shor didn't 've a ghost ov a chance t' save them'selves. Thet fiercely fire t'was whipped up et' thro� them wood planks right quick," the witnesses exclaimed as they told of tragedy that took the lives of Sally's and her blessed kinfolk - eight in all from her body to her father, mother, brothers, sisters and the mewling newborn. Others, the believers of evil spirits and qhostly phantoms, saw it as the damnable doing of monstrous demons and shadow spirits, worked up by the demands of the feared Satan. Their fearful words told how these wicked figures of the nether world carried the brands of flames from the smokestacks of the colliery in the flowing winds, and spread the still smoldering cinders on the roof of the shack of these innocent folk. The believers had seen the evil creatures of hell dance and shout in repulsive joy on their fiendish villiany of their murderous act. The tragedy was reconized by the colliery to be a day of mourning as Sally's father was one of their top pit bosses. In reverence to his memory they shut down the works during the two-hour funeral. Sally and her family were quite popular and well liked by the community, and, in turn, the good folk made their presence known at the chapel with plaintive cries; they followed the cortege, shedding copious tears of deep mourning. Jeremiah was counted amoungst the many mourners as the mule driven carts took the rough pine coffins of the eight members of the family towards their final resting-place. The youth's eyes ran red with tears as he remembered the tender moments with his girl Sally; and the question ran over and over in his mind, "Why, Why? ...and in back of the cortege, if one was able to see, was the Devil; his laughing face expressed his jubilant pleasure as misery plagued a righteous one, namely Jeremiah Micaiah. The Evil One knew of the answer and of the coming end. � � Chapter Twenty-Four The memory of his sudden loss etched deeper in the recesses of Jeremiah's mind and it drove him further into the arms of the Devil Sin. He took the offer of the distilled spirits as a solace to hias misery. He swallowed jar after jar as he tried to drown the wretchedness from his soul. In the vapours of the drink he even cursed the devil himself; his harsh words to the Lordy also questioned his might and powers. There was no answer from the heavens above only the sound of the Devil Sin as he looked on and laughed in the doom of hell. Jeremiah Micaiah roamed through the settlement with the container of the devil's brew, cursing the air with foulness of his phrases; nobody, not even the blessed Lordy was spared in his blasphemy. The sight of a drunken soul staggering with the sound of a loud harsh voice along the paths in the hollow was accepted in the eyes of the good folk; it was common occurence being one of the crosses to be borne in their miserable existence. The sight of Jeremiah's drunkeness was new in the eyes of the good folk of the settlement, especially his expressive habit of talking loudly to spirits that circled in the fantasy of his mind. Neither his young age nor his fouling words disturbed them; only his constant conversation with unseen creatures was their reason of fright. They imagined he was bewitched in his drunken state, and that demons, spirits and the rest of the creatures of hell were called to him.They feared the presence of the creatures of hell when Jeremiah was in the stupor of drink, and they quickly ran from his sight when they heard his footsteps and raucous bellowing. "Jess like yer pa!" Miz' Jezebel, his scolding mother, angrily berated him when he entered her grand house in such a state of drunkeness. The curse of the Jeremiah's continual drinking played havoc with her very being; she become more tense in her actions and her voice increased in its harshness. Even Miz' Jezebel's body showed signs of her miserable burden; it was seen from the greying of her once full red hair to the slight stooping of her burdenous frame. Miz' Jezebel looked into the bleary eyes of her son and she shook her head in dismay, "yer a dis'grace, ye be a miz'rable slob wit all thet drinkin' an' carryin' on agin' th' good Lordy.." Jeremiah just stared at her in the blur of his drunkeness and within the depth of his stomach he let forth a loud belch. "Ye be walkin' th' road to th' hell-fires of the Moloch. I kin hear them a' comin' fer yer hide if ye don stop thet sin of th' devil drink. Don' let them take ye..." "Yeh (hic) maw!" "Land sakes, T'aint no use in talkin' t' ye being in sech a state Th' time is gittin' mighty late... jess a few hours left fer a bit of shut-eye... Now git t' yer bed..." Somehow the command of Miz Jezebel, Jeremiah's stern mother, penetrated his thoughts, and he turned around and staggered from her sight. He turned his dizzy head slightly and saw his mother on bended knees with her arms beseeching the heavens above, "Lordy, Lordy, help me pore son, d'ye hear... Lordy please help, please help," and her words turned to slight sobbing. Jeremiah didn't wait to hear the last of her words or sobs, and continued to stagger to his room. The light of the full moon guided him along darkened hall as Jeremiah stumbled on the worn carpeting towards the stairs. Whatever demon was seen was kicked aside by his erratic feet and the shadow spirits remained hidden. He clumped up the staircase tripping over his unsteady feet, and at every time he stumbled, he let loose foul words upon the devil, the blessed Lordy, and even toward Miz' Jezebel, his suffering kin. Somehow he managed to find the opening to his room where shuffled to his bed, an iron railed spring creaking monstrosity. Jeremiah fully clothed and booted simply fell on the cornhusk matttress. He disregarded the loud squeals of the springs, and within time was snoring heavily. Jeremiah's sleep was filled with the tormenting nightmares of the demons, evil spirits and the other evil creatures of the nether world. He tossed and turned as he dreamt that they drove him naked and beaten through the eerie depths of Satan's realm coupled with their hideous barking commands. He felt in his dreams of hell the dank dripping from the cavernous halls smelled the rank odour of burning sulphur, and witnessed the demeaning punishment to the wicked sinners. Jeremiah groaned deeply and stirred nervously in the misery of the fiendish nightmare that brought his image to the sacrificial pit of the fiery god, the Moloch. He heard the loud shriek of a primitive horn and the hoarse cries of unseen worshippers. He struggled in his sleep, clawing with his hands as he was dragged screaming to the yawning burning cavity. Until he heard the booming sound of a drum.... Miz, Jezebel heavy pounding on the door woke him from his troubled sleep, "Jeremiah, ye lazy critter, it be gettin' mighty late..." � � Chapter Twenty-Five Jeremiah Micaiah in the twenty-third year of his life was a ruin of man. His once youthful worrisome face was now blotched with the signs of drink; and there was a constant leer on his features, the remains of the stupor of the spirits. In addition he was plagued with phlegem filled lungs that told of another curse, the beginning of miner's lung; his lips at intervals puffed in the attempt of clear breathing. He had been promoted to driller and the strength of his body was sapped by the constant vibration of the pneumatic machines that dusted his body with the black foulness of the pits. Jeremiah was considered a loner by his fellow miners, even though he shared their company in the passing of the jar. He joined them when they trudged to the pits, and at odd times exchanged a few parting words on the road home. But, all and all, Jeremiah prefered the company of the varied creatures of the nether world instead of the warmth of man. His strangeness also warned the available young ladies to steer clear from his path. But, Jeremiah, in the foulness of his life, showed neither hoot nor holler for them. When the need aroused, he just hopped to Miz' Sadie's crib, paid his dues, and then tousled in crude coupling with one of the uncaring women of pleasure. Miz' Jezebel, his ever-patient mother, stood the hard toil of her son's ruin; her worried and lined face spoke of the day by day struggle. She was tired in her bitterness, as she felt helpless at the sight at the slow deterioration of her boy. The tone of her voice was coarsed with hoarsness through her contant harranging towards the wayward steps of Jeremiah. She berated her son constantly for his sinning, and, in the course of her argument she repeated the warning of the terrible punishment awaiting the sinners in the hell-fires of the Moloch, "ye be sittin' an' moonin' fer yars on Sally's passing...drinkin' til ye drops.. Th' gal 'll not be a' returnin' mind you. Drinkin' 'll not bring her back not t' hell freezes over.. Th' only thing a'comin' r' th' hell fires ov thet wicked Moloch. He'll be a'waitin' fer yer sinnin' hide! 'Member me words." Everytime at the sight of her son seen deep in the haze of the spirits, Miz' Jezebel would go in to a repeated harsh fit of speechification in an attempt to correct his ways. She knew no words of solace, a balm that would console him in the misery of his past loss; and, perhaps, would direct him in the right way towards salvation. She only prayed hard to the good 'Lordy' for the redemption of her son but no answer was heard. Miz' Jezebel's warnings on sin was heard on that terrible day in the recent past. Satan was the listener, and he heard her spelling out the phrases of the Good Book as she tried to lead her son into the ways of repentance and salvation; and he witnessed the rejection. "Now," chortled the devil as he saw the rewards of the temptation to sin, "Now, the sacrificial lamb shall walk in the beat of the drum to the bronze welcoming arms of the Moloch, the god of eternal heat." Those who believed could hear his fiendish laugh Satan watched on that early morning as Miz' Jezebel, the sinner's care worn mother, banged on the door to her son's door as was her usual custom. The devil heard her harsh tones when they were repeated in the early day warning, "Jeremiah, tis gettin' late.. git yer hide.. Jeremiah, d'ye hear!" And the Prince of Darkness knew that the youth always woke up slovenly from the loud call, a miserable release from a drunken sleep mixed with the horrors of a terrible haunting nightmare. Jeremiah answered the call of his impatient mother after he had the partial clarity of mind. He rose fully dressed from his creaking bed, and in a fit of irritation threw off his soiled clothes of the past evening, changing to the garments of his job. Without reason he just walked aimlessly about the room for a few moments ejecting loud belches that rose from depth of his bilious throat to the foulness of his open mouth. Collecting his wits somewhat, he stumbled from the room, pushing aside his waiting mother. With a sense of urgency he rushed from the dwelling to the outhouse; and on the way he shook shook his foggy-brained head in an attempt to regain the fullness of his thoughts. Vomit oozed from his mouth and he quickened his pace.
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