Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [237]

In the choir we sang rousing old hymns accompanied by Cory’s piano playing and lightning and thunder from outside. It was wonderful. Some people missed part of the sermon, though, because they went home to put out all the barrels, buckets, tubs, and pots they could find to catch the free water. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 237

Note

A single paragraph turns worship into weather: the piano and the thunder trade places as accompaniment, and the congregation walks out mid-sermon to catch ‘free water.’ The abrupt cut from devotional to practical is the craft — faith and survival share one room without comment.