quick. He quit seizuring and I removed the sock. We sent Angus up to get Father Travis.
While Angus was gone and the guy was breathing okay but still out of it, Cappy said, What do we do now? Think fast, Number One.
Join the YEC, I said.
Yeah, said Zack. Seek out new life-forms. The YEC, a rosary-based primitive people . . .
I get it, Cappy said. We convert. This guy converted us.
Yeah right, said pimple guy, half opening his eyes. He passed out and puked again. We turned him sideways so he wouldn’t choke, and he sputtered awake.
We’re cool now, man, said Cappy. You showed us the way. We felt a sparkle come down over us.
It happened, I said. The sparkle.
Jesus saves, said Zack, and then he repeated these words over and over in a soft but rising chant that seemed to galvanize the skinny guy, whose name we learned was Neal, into rising with us and putting up a wobbling hand with ours to feel the spirit. Moving forward with the spirit upon us we advanced from the bush, fully dressed, in a little cluster around dripping Neal, calling out whatever Zack did. Holy Spirit is right on! Right on upon us. Hallelujah. Praise the Christ Form. Praise His Rez Erection. Holy Mother’s Milk. Lamb of Goodness Sakes. Holy Fruity Womb! Zack was a rotten Catholic. Father Travis had left the squad on some urgent business of the moment and was just now hurrying back with Angus. His cassock swirled around his striding thighs. But too late. All he saw was us surrounded by a pack of orange Ts, hugging, weeping, throwing up our hands. All he could do when Cappy fell upon him crying, Thank you, thank you, Jesus, was pat Cappy’s back hard enough to make him grunt, and eye me like a trapped hawk. I knew better than to meet Father Travis’s eyes after that one look. I turned away and bumped up against Dream Girl, who was standing at the edge of things, with the truth and Cappy walking from the water in her thoughts. I saw those things on her face. And I saw there was no conflict. Which is as much as to say that she was in love.
Her name was Zelia and she’d traveled all the way over from Helena, Montana, to convert the Indians, none of whom lived in tipis and many of whom had skin lighter than her own, and this confused her.
Zack asked why she didn’t stay in Montana and convert those Indians over there.
What Indians? she asked.
Oh them, said Cappy quickly. They’re all Mormons and Witnesses and so on already, those Montana Indians. Nobody goes near them. You should keep on converting over here. Lots of pagans here.
Oh, said Zelia. Well, we don’t trespass on other missions so much, anyway.
She was Mexican, from a very close family. They’d been against her mission work to a danger zone, she said, but she got her way eventually.
Actually, you’re an Indian too, I told her. She looked offended, so I said, Maybe you’re a noble Mayan.
You’re probably an Aztec, said Cappy. This was later in the afternoon. We had signed on for the last two days of Father Travis’s summer program so that we could see Dream Girl. She and Cappy were starting to flirt.
Yes, I think you are Aztec. Cappy eyed her half mockingly. You’d reach right into a man’s chest and rip out his heart.
She looked away, but she smiled.
Zack put his fist out and pumped it with a squishing noise. Padump. Padump. But neither of them looked at him. The three of us knew we had no hope. Cappy was the only one. But we still wanted to be near her and hoped that she would try converting us for real.
At home, my mother’s energy had faded only slightly. She had two streaks of color on her face. I realized she’d smeared on rouge. She was taking iron pills and other pills. There were six bottles of stuff right inside the kitchen cabinet. She had made Juneberry pancakes for dinner. Mom and Dad sat skeptically and listened as I told all about how I had joined Youth Encounter Christ, or YEC, and was due up at the church tomorrow.
Youth Encounter? My father narrowed his eyes. You quit Whitey’s to join a youth encounter group?
I quit Whitey’s because he pasted Sonja.
My mother went rigid.
All right, said my father quickly. What do you encounter?