neck. I looked in vain for help but there was none.
“Tony is the priest, Tony is the priest, yah-yah-yah-ya-ya!” They sang and danced around me. I grew dizzy. The weight of the jackets on me was heavy and suffocating.
“All right!” I cried to appease them, “I shall be your priest!” I looked at Samuel. He had turned away.
“Yea-aaaaaaaaye!” A great shout went up. Even the girls drew closer to watch.
“Hail to our priest!” Lloyd said judiciously.
“Do it right!” Agnes shouted.
“Yeah! Me first! Do it like for reals!” Horse shouted and threw himself at my feet.
“Everybody quiet!” Ernie held up his hands. They all drew around the kneeling Horse and myself, and the wall provided the enclosure but not the privacy of the confessional.
“Bless me, father—” Horse said, but as he concentrated to make the sign of the cross he forgot his lines. “Bless me, father—” he repeated desperately.
“You have sinned,” I said. It was very quiet in the enclosure.
“Yes,” he said. I remembered hearing the confession of the dying Narciso.
“It’s not right to hear another person’s confession,” I said, glancing at the expectant faces around me.
“Go on!” Ernie hissed and hit me on the back. Blows fell on my head and shoulders. “Go on!” they cried. They really wanted to hear Horse’s confession.
“It’s only a game!” Rita whispered.
“How long has it been since your last confession?” I asked Horse.
“Always,” he blurted out, “since I was born!”
“What are your sins?” I asked. I felt hot and uncomfortable under the weight of the jackets.
“Tell him only your worst one,” Rita coaxed the Horse. “Yeah!” all the rest agreed.
The Horse was very quiet, thinking. He had grabbed one of my hands and he clutched it tightly, as if some holy power was going to pass through it and absolve him of his sins. His eyes rolled wildly, then he smiled and opened his mouth. His breath fouled the air.
“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