Rev Reynolds

Rev records a first job

At the Marrow Creek fair, the names Rev Reynolds reads come on cards with numbers and occasionally instructions somebody has added in a hurry. His first microphone was a borrowed one with a spot of dried custard near the switch. He filled a wait at the holding ring by reading bids off an empty clipboard until people caught on. A buyer asked who he had been bidding against. Rev remembers answering that a little girl in an orange coat was bidding from the top of a fence. The buyer took off his hat to look. Rev had him following the game until the cards finally came.

He learned to count money in the auction room and start jokes outside it. Doing both at once makes the count less reliable. His brother Leon comes to the fair every year and leaves before the loudest part to get the dogs home. He says Rev can hear a crowd looking for something to do and give it to them from the top of his head. He has also heard Rev start doing it at the breakfast table when all Leon wanted was the jug.

Leon remembers the other step

At a closed practice day for the Ford Escort RS2000, Rev came in early to check the wheel and get a place near the head of the queue. He got through the first few things and saw a group waiting for him to say something. He said two beginnings, heard them both run out, and walked over to Axel Rose's spare step behind the Chevelle's bay. Leon looked for him with their lunch in a cloth wrap and found him sitting with an empty place on either side.

Leon didn't ask for the story. He told Rev he could leave the bay open and come back when somebody actually needed him. Rev didn't say much for the next several minutes. Then he asked Leon to sit there anyway while he finished checking the wheel. By the time they got up, the bread had warmed right through in its wrapper.

Reply from the rail

Rev gives a car one strong turn-in. Lately he has been testing a smoother entry where the Escort can take a set without him holding his breath to make it happen. The next quiet pass didn't look much different from the gate. Rev said he had very clearly felt one hand stay soft against the wheel. He had never tried to notice it before. Walking the rail afterward, he lent Otto Gravel a folding flag to mark where he was looking, then took his seat without calling attention to what either of them was doing.

Rally Parton offered him a place by the orchard hall's side door one night. He could hear the rehearsal without seeing anybody looking back. When the bus returned, a young singer asked if he had remembered their part of the fair for next time. He had.

He carried the fair's running order home folded to that page. Leon saw where he had left a space.

One open call

Rev wants another whole practice after the queue settles. He also wants to announce a stretch at the next fair with a cup of water and nothing prepared for the first wait. Leon asked him to make up his mind where he wanted the folding seat. Rev has left it where two people have to see each other before they sit.