Carl Stilwell AKA CaLokie

A Bible Belt Polonaise

I met Richard Brand while we were both juniors at

Midwest City High. He was playing a Chopin's Polonaise

on a Steinway at a church social. As his bony shoulders

pumped, his long fingers flew furiously along the length

of the keyboard with a power I wouldn't have believed

possible for someone with such a frail frame. It was

the first time I had ever liked anything classical.

The last time I saw Richard, he drove me home in his

'40 Plymouth Coupe. I had just returned from Moody

Bible Institute in Chicago and looked forward to telling him

of the white bucked college quarterbacks and high-heeled

blonde beauty queens I had seen testify at Youth for Christ

rallies about the unspeakable joy they discovered the moment

they bowed their heads, closed their eyes and asked Jesus

to come into their hearts and take total control.

I knew Richard was "madly for Adlai” when most of us

"liked Ike” and that he might've believed Evolution was true

but I still wasn!t ready for what he told me. He could no longer

bend his knees to the god of our Bible Belt fathers. . . His eyes

had been opened and could never be closed again. . . He reco-

mmended that I read J.B. Phillips' book,Your God is too Small. . ..

Before I got out of his car, he placed a hand on my left wrist

and pleaded in an anguished voice, "Please--don't pray for me.”

I'd like to visit that North Carolina oak grove

where Richard shot himself, kneel before a mound

of brown and yellow leaves piled within a circle

of ash-white stones and let him know

I never prayed for him. . .

I read J.B. Phillips. . .

I've yet to hear anyone play

a better Polonaise.