Bless Me, Ultima(83)

“I know! I know!” he said excitedly. “One day when Miss Violet let me go to the bathroom I made a hole in the wall! With a nail! Then I could see into the girls’ bathroom! I waited a long time! Then one of the girls came and sat down, and I could see everything! Her ass! Everything! I could even hear the pee!” he cried out.

“Horse, you’re dirty!” June exclaimed. Then the girls looked shyly at each other and giggled.

“You have sinned,” I said to Horse. Horse freed my hand and began rubbing at the front of his pants.

“There’s more!” he cried, “I saw a teacher!”

“No!”

“Yes! Yes!” He rubbed harder.

“Who?” one of the girls asked.

“Mrs. Harrington!” Everyone laughed. Mrs. Harrington weighed about two hundred pounds. “It was bigggggggg—!” he exploded and fell trembling on the ground.

“Give him a penance!” the girls chanted and pointed accusing fingers at the pale Horse. “You are dirty, Horse,” they cried, and he whimpered and accepted their accusations.

“For your penance say a rosary to the Virgin,” I said weakly. I didn’t feel good. The weight of the jackets was making me sweat, and the revelation of Horse’s confession and the way the kids were acting was making me sick. I wondered how the priest could shoulder the burden of all the sins he heard.

… the weight of the sins will sink the town into the lake of the golden carp…

I looked for Samuel. He was not joining in the game. Florence was calmly accepting the sacrilegious game we were playing, but then it didn’t matter to him, he didn’t believe.

“Me next! Me next!” Bones shouted. He let go of my leg and knelt in front of me. “I got a better sin than Horse! Bless me, father! Bless me, father! Bless me, father!” he repeated. He kept making the sign of the cross over and over. “I got a sin! I got to confess! I saw a high school boy and a girl fucking in the grass by the Blue Lake!” He smiled proudly and looked around.

“Ah, I see them every night under the railroad bridge,” the Vitamin Kid scoffed.

“What do you mean?” I asked Bones.

“Naked! Jumping up and down!” he exclaimed.

“You lie, Bones!” Horse shouted. He didn’t want his own sin bettered.

“No I don’t!” Bones argued. “I don’t lie, father, I don’t lie!” he pleaded.

“Who was it?” Rita asked.

“It was Larry Saiz, and that dumb gabacha whose father owns the Texaco station—please father, it’s my sin! I saw it! I confess!” He squeezed my hand very hard.

“Okay, Bones, okay,” I nodded my head, “it’s your sin.”

“Give me a penance!” he growled.

“A rosary to the Virgin,” I said to be rid of him.

“Like Horse?” he shouted.

“Yes.”

“But my sin was bigger!” he snarled and leaped for my throat. “Whagggggghhh—” he threw me down and would have strangled me if the others hadn’t pulled him away.

“Another rosary for daring to touch the priest!” I shouted in self-defense and pointed an accusing finger at him. That made him happy and he settled down.

“Florence next!” Abel cried.

“Nah, Florence ain’t goin’ make it anyway,” Lloyd argued.

“That’s enough practice,” I said and started to take off the cumbersome costume, but they wouldn’t let me.

“Abel’s right,” Ernie said emphatically, “Florence needs the practice! He didn’t make it because he didn’t practice!”

“He didn’t make it because he doesn’t believe!” Agnes taunted.

“Why doesn’t he believe?” June asked.

“Let’s find out!” “Make him tell!” “¡Chingada!”

They grabbed tall Florence before he could bolt away and made him kneel in front of me.

“No!” I protested.

“Confess him!” they chanted. They held him with his arms pinned behind his back. I looked down at him and tried to let him know we might as well go along with the game. It would be easier that way.

“What are your sins?” I asked.

“I don’t have any,” Florence said softly.

“You do, you bastard!” Ernie shouted and pulled Florence’s head back.

“You have sins,” Abel agreed.

“Everybody has sins!” Agnes shouted. She helped Ernie twist Florence’s head back. Florence tried to struggle but he was pinned by Horse and Bones and Abel. I tried to pull their hands away from him to relieve the pain I saw in his face, but the trappings of the priest’s costume entangled me and so I could do very little.