Their community

When the temps are so high, a person just has to get nekkid and sit outside in the sun swinging his stuff from left to right. That was the philosophy of Bob Gerlichson. And thus, once it turned summer, the neighbours of Bob would frown on the sight of the naked Bob, but after a day or two this would stop. They would have grown accustomed to the bloated, sweaty mass of the body named Bob Gerlichson. Nobody really cared that much since Bob was Bob, and this small community liked its particularities since it made their community, their community.

But, as always happens in a story since otherwise there would be nothing to narratize, everything changed when the old minister of the church died and a new minister was brought in from a far-off town which had absolutely nothing to do with this small community. He wanted to impose his big city views of family values. And in those family values the naked Bob Gerlichson did not have a place. The first time the minister and his family wandered through their new home town, they yelled and screamed and ran away when they spotted the sweaty mass of Bob. The people on the street started laughing when they saw the event. They had flashbacks to the time they first saw Bob Gerlichson’s summer outfit. One reminisced of the dropped ice cream and he started crying, not because Bob was naked, but because he dropped his ice cream. Another one remembered that he too would run around naked for a couple of summers because he thought Bob was cool. This was, of course, in the time that Bob was less the man he now had turned into.

But, the new minister could not laugh at the event and preached in his open sermon the value of clothing. Bob, who was a little late for church, obviously not due to clothing issues, walked in half way through the sermon and the minister said: “Speaking of the devil, the naked man has just walked in, but he has no place in this house of worship, this house of god, clothe thee or get out!” Bob was startled and the mouths of many fell open. Bob started crying and fell onto his knees. He brought his hands together and turned his eyes op to the sky. “Holy Father, have you not given me this body. Have you not giving me this body to show it off to the people of this town. I know the shape of your giving has been neglected for the last couple of years, but still, I persevere. I am still grateful for this body…” But the minister had had it and came up to Bob, together with his two strong sons and he dragged Bob out of the church. “And stay out!” The three yelled and slammed the church doors shut. The people of the town had not said a thing. They were in shock.

Next Sunday, the minister was glad. He had not seen Bob for the entire week out in the streets. Mission accomplished, the minister thought. He and his family did a quick prayer before they would open the church doors and welcome the people into their house of worship. The minister with a big smile opens the church doors, but that smile did not stay on long. Once he opened the doors, he saw. Bob kneeled before the priest, brought his hands together and gazed at the sky. He was naked. Behind Bob, all the other people of this small time community started kneeling, bringing their hands together and gazed upon the sky. They were all naked. The minister started yelling: “Sinners be they all! Sinners be they all!” His family ran towards his side to see the eighty year-old Getty Getterson naked, to see the eighteen year-old Jordan Patterson naked, to see the twenty-seven year-old pregnant Linda Jefferson. They all rose up and walked into the church. They pushed the minister and his family out of the church. “Get nekkid or get out of our community!”