 Sofie
looks out the window of her trailer
and informs her mother that the
morning revival has ended. Apollonia
tells Sofie that Ben needs help.
Sofie asks what kind of help. A
knock at the door. Ben starts to
ask Sofie if she'd drive him-- Yeah,
Sofie says. They'll meet in the
Chevy. She hands him a sheet to
hide under. As they drive down a
country road, Sofie asks Ben what's
so important about Mrs. Donovan.
"Family business," Ben
replies. As they pull up to the
Donovan house -- the house from
Ben's dream -- a ghostly image of
Scudder and the woman appears on
the porch, then disappears. "Love
Me or Leave Me" plays faintly
for a moment. They step onto the
porch and Ben knocks at the front
door. A servant, Walter, answers.
When he recognizes Ben as the miracle-man,
he tells Ben that Mrs. Donovan has
been waiting for him.
Becca Donovan
is lying in her bed, coughing and
dying. She asks Walter to show Sofie
to the kitchen for some lemonade,
and beckons Ben come closer. Ben
shows Becca the photograph of Scudder:
"The Gentlemen Geek."
BECCA:
"Crazy old bird..."
BEN: "When was the last time
you seen him?"
BECCA: "Oh, long time ago.
Fifteen years, or more. Old Hack
Scudder and me. We got thick as
thieves, we did."
BEN: "... You heard from
him since?"
BECCA: "Just dreams. You
know that. Sent you one about
me, Ben Hawkins."
She is the
woman on the porch from Ben's dream.
Becca tells Ben that she knows about
his gift, for Scudder had it also.
But there's rules. To give life,
life must be taken from something
else -- and there's no way to predict
from what. With that, Sheriff Donovan
comes bounding into the room, demanding
that Ben get out of his house. Ben
complies.
On the way
back, Sofie asks Ben who Mrs. Donovan
was. "She was my grandma,"
Ben lies. Fed up with the cryptic
nonsense, and still upset about
Ben's run-in with her mother, Sofie
stops the truck and demands Ben
get. Ben does and Sofie nearly runs
him down. After he calls her a "Crazy
damn bitch!" she backs the
truck up and tells him to get in.
He stubbornly refuses and sits down
on the side of the road. Meanwhile,
Samson has another straw house and
he's wondering where his headliner
is. He tells Lila to get Schmidt
ready in Ben's place. This crowd
won't notice the difference. Much
later, Sofie is still parked on
the country road and Ben is still
sitting on the ground. But when
Sofie notices Ben is starting to
shiver in the cold, she's the first
to break the silence. She asks him
for a cigarette. He asks to drive.
 The
revival has begun. Stumpy and the
crowd clap and sing to "When
the Saints Go Marching In."
Schmidt sits on stage, made up in
a tuxedo to look like Ben. Samson,
Lodz, Lila and Jonesy are again
observing from the back. The music
ends. Stumpy asks who is need of
Christ's healing power and several
people stand up and raise their
hands. Stumpy picks a young woman
in the back. She hobbles toward
the stage with the aid of two canes
and introduces herself as Verna.
She's actually Stumpy's daughter,
Dora Mae. Stumpy asks "Verna"
what misfortune befell her and she
says that she "got runned over
by a thresher." An over exaggerated
amount of blood runs down her horribly
mangled leg. But Dora Mae says she
thanks God every day for sparing
her life. The crowd whoops and hollers.
Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus! Thank
you, Lord! Stumpy asks the young
girl if she's ready to be healed,
when Sheriff Donovan shouts "No!"
from the back of the tent. In his
arms is his dying mother. He and
the crowd demand that Becca be healed
instead.
Then, Donovan
realizes Schmidt is not the healer
Benjamin St. John. Samson and Jonesy
look around irritated and apprehensive.
They've been exposed. When suddenly,
Ben walks in. He tells Donovan to
set his mother down. They rest her
on the ground and everyone looks
on silently. Becca gasps and wheezes.
Ben leans in close. He whispers
to her, begging for her not to die,
because he needs to know the rules.
He doesn't want to hurt anybody,
least of all, it seems, Sofie, who
he spots watching from the sidelines.
But despite the risks, he reaches
out to lay his hands on Becca, a
woman with ties to his family and
past. She gasps. "No. Don't
touch me. No." Ben asks her
where Henry Scudder went after he
left her. "Babylon..."
she replies. Then, she dies.
The rousties
are loading the last of the trucks
as the carnival makes its final
preparations before departing. Samson
approaches Ben and asks the boy
what he was planning to do if Becca
hadn't stopped him. When Ben doesn't
answer, Samson informs him that
the price of his ad-libbing is latrine
duty. There will be no more headlining
for Ben. Samson yells for the carnies
to start the trucks.
JONESY:
"Where we headed?"
SAMSON: "Stay on 54. Pick
up route 66 to 27 south."
JONESY: "Through Texas?"
Samson nods.
JONESY: "That's gonna take
us awful close to Babylon."
SAMSON: "No, it's gonna take
us to Babylon."
Samson and
Jonesy pull out, the remaining trucks
following. The carnival leaves Tipton
and heads out into the night....
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