King James Virgin A Holiness Memoir

It is November 22, 1963, and Elaine is nine years old. She is daydreaming in her third-grade classroom when rifle fire in a distant state blasts the world outside Eastern Kentucky into her awareness. Long before President Kennedy's assassination, the Saints in her Pentecostal Holiness community have warned the End Times are imminent. America has turned its back on God, they say, and he may withdraw his protection from the nation. America is in a Cold War with the Communists who lurk behind the Iron Curtain, threatening nuclear war. Elaine's hillside home sits below a test flight route for B-52 bombers. She is often reminded of potential impending doom when the menacing planes slice through the sky and shake the ground below. Severe mental illness afflicts some family members including her cherished aunt who is periodically hospitalized in the state psychiatric hospital. She attempts to allay her anxiety and prevent disaster with obsessive-compulsive rituals Poor by most economic standards, Elaine is rich in dreams and imagination.