Period 8 - By Chris Crutcher Page 0,32

Thumpers. Let Jesus find a way.” She laughs and nods at a back booth.

“We’re not quite a fit,” Paulie says, smiling. “I think the answer is to drown my sorrows.” He takes a gigantic bite of his burger and washes it down with milkshake. “And remember, you can’t tell my mother. She doesn’t know any of this. I’ll give it to her a little at a time.”

Naomi’s already taking the three men’s orders, but she runs her fingers across her lips with the zipper sign.

Paulie finishes the burger in four more bites, eats the onion rings two at a time, drains the shake, leaves Naomi a bigger than shit tip, and gets up to go.

“Mr. Bomb!” comes from the back booth.

“Mr. Firth,” Paulie says. “Whassup?”

“Just sittin’ here rootin’ out evil,” Ron says. “Come on back.”

“Gotta get home,” Paulie says. “I just stopped for a little dinner to hold me over ’til dinner. My mom’s expecting me.”

“Come on, Bomb. Won’t hurt you to sit with us and get the Word. We need a little stimulation. Everyone back here agrees with each other. It’s boring.”

Paulie smiles and walks back.

The booth is full so he sits across the narrow aisle and orders another shake. “So how you guys doin’? Jesus still all right?”

It brings smiles. A couple of kids sitting against the window break briefly into The Doobie Brothers’ version.

“From what you said in P-8 the other day, sounds like you could use a little Jesus,” Firth says.

Paulie glances up. Things said in Period 8 stay there.

Ron reads his mind. “They don’t know what I’m talking about,” he says. “I keep the faith with Mr. Logs.”

“I’ll give you all dispensation on this one,” Paulie says back. “Anybody wants to know the horror of my life can go read Hannah Murphy’s Facebook page. She doesn’t name names, but it doesn’t take a genius to know which a-hole is which.”

“Hannah Murphy was talking about you?” Cassandra Hoops says. “I thought all that was rhetorical.”

Paulie says, “When was the last time you heard Hannah Murphy get rhetorical?”

Carrie Morales says, “So you’re an adulterer.”

“Just a dick, if you’ll pardon the expression,” Paulie says. “Nobody involved was married. Or an adult.”

“Semantics, really,” Carrie says.

“Actually, we have to give our wayward friend the benefit of the doubt here,” Ron says. “No promises were made in the presence of God. Let’s not get too hardass here, folks, even though it’s we who profess to be without sin.” He raises his eyebrows at Carrie.

“So there, Carrie Morales,” Paulie says.

The others look on as if they need to be brought up to speed.

“I cheated,” Paulie says. “And I’m getting what I deserved. Actually, you could have wormed all this out of Arney Stack. You guys have his ear.”

Firth says, “Say what?”

“I thought you guys were lobbying Stack to get Johannsen and the school board to let you have a classroom for your get-togethers. Midnight meeting? One of these last Fridays?”

YFC heads shake in unison. “One more politician who doesn’t come through,” Firth says. “Mr. Stack hasn’t been at one of our meetings since we carried the election for him.”

“Carried the election.” Paulie laughs. “You and every other group in school. Arney didn’t meet with you guys a couple Fridays ago?”

“Haven’t seen Arney at one of our meetings—formal or informal—since last year.”

“And we sure haven’t seen him at any of the late Friday night meetings,” Carrie adds. “Those are where we have some fun. I’d remember that.”

Paulie shrugs and runs the business end of his straw around the inside of his glass, sucking up the cold residue like an 8-pound Oreck. “Gotta go, you guys. Thanks for bearing witness.”

“You wouldn’t have to change much, Mr. Bomb,” Ron Firth says, “to be one of us. We have hope for you.”

“Thanks anyway,” Paulie says back, “but as much time as I spend trying to haul myself through the water, I’m suspicious of guys who walk on it.”

“See you in school, man.”

Paulie belts himself into the Beetle and sits, staring out the windshield at Frank’s Diner. Arney didn’t have to speed off to YFC that night. Why would he say that? Where was he going that he didn’t want Paulie to know? He said in Period 8 that Mary Wells was a friend; why would he not be willing to give her a lift? And Hannah said Arney was the only guy she knew who wasn’t afraid of Mary’s dad. What’s that about?

He jumps at a knock on the driver’s-side window, looks up into Mary’s face.