“Florence by the light—” Tall angelic Florence moved under the light bulb that was the star of the east. When the rest of the lights were turned off the light bulb behind Florence would be the only light. “Watch your head—”
“Everybody ready?” The three wise men were ready, Samuel, Florence, and the Kid. Horse and I were ready. The fellows holding up the cardboard animals were ready, and Red was ready.
“Here they come,” Miss Violet whispered. She stepped into the wings.
I glanced up and saw the screaming horde of first graders rushing down the aisle to sit in the front rows. The fourth and fifth graders sat behind them. Their teachers looked at the stage, shook their heads and left, closing the doors behind them. The audience was all ours.
“I got to pee,” Abel whispered.
“Shhhhhh,” Miss Violet coaxed, “everybody quiet.” She hit the light switch and the auditorium darkened. Only the star of the east shone on stage. Miss Violet whispered for Red to begin. He stepped to the center of the stage and began his narration.
“The First Christmas!” he announced loudly. He was a good reader.
“Hey, it’s Red!” someone in the audience shouted, and everybody giggled. I’m sure Red blushed, but he went on; he wasn’t ashamed of stuff like that.
“I got to—” Abel moaned.
Lloyd began to unwrap another Tootsie Roll and the cow he was holding teetered. “The cow’s moving,” someone in the first row whispered. Horse glanced nervously behind me. I was afraid he would run. He was trembling.
“—And they were led by the star of the east—” and here Red pointed to the light bulb. The kids went wild with laughter. “—So they journeyed that cold night until they came to the town of Bethlehem—”
“Abel peed!” Bones called from above. We turned and saw the light of the east reflecting off a golden pool at Abel’s feet. Abel looked relieved.
“¡Ah la veca!” “¡Puto!”
“How nasty,” Lloyd scoffed. He turned and spit a mouthful of chewed-up Tootsie Roll. It landed on Maxie, who was holding up a cardboard donkey behind us.
Maxie got up cleaning himself. The donkey toppled over. “¡Jodido!” He cursed Lloyd and shoved him. Lloyd fell over his cow.
“You could be sued for that,” he threatened from the floor.
“Boys! Boys!” Miss Violet called excitedly from the dark.
I felt Horse’s head tossing at the excitement. I clamped my arm down to hold him, and he bit my hand.
“¡Ay!”
“And there in a manger, they found the babe—” Red turned and nodded for me to speak.
“I am Joseph!” I said as loud as I could, trying to ignore the sting of the horse bite, “and this is the baby’s mother—”
“Damn you!” Horse cursed when I said that. He jumped up and let me have a hard fist in the face.
“It’s Horse!” the audience squealed. He had dropped his veil, and he stood there trembling, like a trapped animal.
“Horse the virgin!” Bones called.
“Boys, Bowoooo-oizz!” Miss Violet pleaded.
“—AndthethreekingsbroughtgiftstotheChristchild—” Red was reading very fast to try to get through the play, because everything was really falling apart on stage.
The audience wasn’t helping either, because they kept shouting, “Is that you, Horse?” or “Is that you, Tony?”
The Kid stepped up with the first gift. “I bring, I bring—” He looked at his script but he couldn’t read.
“Incense,” I whispered.
“¿Qué?”
“Incense,” I repeated. Miss Violet had rearranged Horse’s robe and pushed him back to kneel by me. My eyes were watering from his blow.
“In-sense,” the Kid said and he threw the crayon box we were using for incense right into the manger and busted the doll’s head again. The round head just rolled out into the center of the stage near where Red stood and he looked down at it with a puzzled expression on his face.
Then the Kid stepped back and slipped on Abel’s pee. He tried to get up and run, but that only made it worse. He kept slipping and getting up, and slipping and getting up, and all the while the audience had gone wild with laughter and hysteria.
“Andthesecondwisemanbroughtmyrrh!” Red shouted above the din.
“Meerrrr, merrrrda, ¡mierda!” Bones cried like a monkey.
“I bring myra,” Samuel said.
“Myra!” someone in the audience shouted, and all the fifth graders turned to look at a girl named Myra. All of the boys said she sat on her wall at home after school and showed her panties to those that wanted to see.