RAYMOND MATERSON (B. 1954)

Materson recalls working on the present scene while in prison and explaining the story of Hamlet to a fellow inmate named Lester.

"'So this man's killed his pops and then married his mom?' Lester asked...

'Exactly,' I responded...'He knows he should take revenge if it's the truth. But he keeps having these little doubts. He even thinks that maybe he should kill himself.'

'Well,' Lester concluded, 'if he knew more about the Bible, he would know that the Lord avenges. Hamlet here got no faith. See, if you follow the Lord, no matter what kind of misery you find yourself in, he'll get ya through it. The man should've prayed more and thought less' (Ray Materson and Melanie Materson, Sins and Needles: A Story of Spiritual Mending (Chapel Hill, 2002), pp. 100-101).