4

—

“You should take your dog to church,” Lindsay Feeler whispered to Nicola during gym when they were both dead.

First Nicola got killed because she hated Murder Ball so much. While everyone was running amok, she stood with her eyes squeezed shut, waiting for the death blow. Then she could sit down on the floor and forget about getting hit.

Last year they never played Murder Ball. They did proper things in gym class, like basketball and gymnastics. Things that didn’t hurt.

As soon as Nicola got murdered, Lindsay came and stood beside her. Anyone not moving was doomed.

Smack! The ball struck her between the shoulder blades. She grunted and sank down next to Nicola.

“Confess for your dog,” she whispered. “Then she won’t go to hell.”

“Really?” Nicola asked.

“I think so,” Lindsay said. “When you confess, it’s like erasing every bad thing you’ve done.”

All around them, their classmates were stampeding from one corner of the gym to the other, screaming and yelling. Ms. Phibbs seemed to have left.

“Do you go to church?” Nicola asked.

“No,” said Lindsay, “but I know a bit about it from the manager in my apartment building. He works in a church near where I live. I’ll take you there. You can confess for June Bug.”

“When?” Nicola asked.

Lindsay took a paper out of her back pocket and unfolded it. On it were dates and times in a kid’s printing.

“Oh, look,” she said. “You could go this Saturday.”

* * *

“It’s nice that you’ve made a new friend,” Mina told Nicola on Saturday morning as she was straightening the pictures on the living-room walls. She straightened them every few days, but they always ended up crooked again.

“She’s not a friend,” Nicola said. “She’s the girl I sit beside.”

Lindsay Feeler was hurrying up the walk now. June Bug, standing on the back of the couch watching out the window, started beating her stubby tail at the sight of a visitor.

“Oh,” Lindsay cried when Nicola opened the door. “Is that June Bug? She looks exactly like your drawing!”

Lindsay crouched to pat the wagging dog.

“I just want to call your mother,” Mina said. “To make sure that Nicola is invited.”

“My mom isn’t home. She works on Saturday. She’s a florist.”

Mina glanced at Nicola. “I’m afraid I’m not comfortable with you girls being without adult supervision.”

“Oh, I’m without it all the time. The apartment manager keeps an eye on me. And my mom’s shop is nearby. She’s the cutest dog I’ve ever seen!”

June Bug seemed to like Lindsay, so much that Nicola should have warned her. If June Bug really, really liked someone, she would —

“Ouch!” Lindsay straightened with her hand over her nose.

“No, June Bug!” Mina and Nicola scolded.

“Anyway, we’re not going to my house,” Lindsay said, dabbing at her nose to see if it was bleeding. “Didn’t Nicola tell you? We’re going to a wedding.”

“We are?” Nicola said.

“Yes, and we’d better hurry because it starts at eleven. I want to get there before the bride.”

Somehow Lindsay managed to convince Mina. The church was just five blocks away. There would be plenty of adults at the wedding. Mina knew the church, didn’t she? Our Lady of Perpetual Help?

“You can come, too,” Lindsay told Mina.

“Do you know the people getting married?” Mina asked.

“No. I just stand outside.”

Mina laughed. She said Nicola could go if she took the phone. “I might drop by if I get everything done.” She sighed. She was a lawyer, which meant more homework than even Ms. Phibbs could assign.

Nicola and Lindsay headed off, leaving poor June Bug behind.

“But I’m confessing, too, right?” Nicola said, and Lindsay nodded.

For five leaf-strewn blocks Lindsay wondered out loud about the bride’s dress. Nicola, who saw no difference between one long white dress and another, didn’t say anything. When they reached the old brick church, Lindsay pointed to the marble statue of a lady above the door.

“That’s the Lady of Perpetual Help. Perpetual means you can come day or night,” she explained.

The wedding guests were arriving, dressed up and laughing. Lindsay fidgeted until a car decorated with paper flowers and streamers pulled up.

“There she is!”

The bride had trouble getting out of the car, she was so tangled up in lace. She needed all four bridesmaids and the flower girl to help her up the steps and into the church. Then Nicola and Lindsay had to wait around for what seemed like another hour while Lindsay praised the dress.

“Did you see the beading on the bodice? My mom’s wedding dress had that.”

“What’s a bodice?” Nicola asked.

“The top of the dress. Bodice, sleeves, skirt and train.”

Finally, the wedding march played and everyone came out again, the bride and groom smiling like crazy and kissing everyone gathered on the steps.

“Now,” Lindsay said, giving Nicola a poke.

Nicola squeezed through the crowd. She’d only been inside a church once, for her grandma’s funeral when she was four. She slipped through the big carved doors and looked around.

Up front stood a table covered with a white cloth. Light shone through one of the stained-glass windows and painted a picture on it. All around the church there were these pretty windows. One showed a golden-haired angel unrolling a scroll.

Peace Be Upon You.

Nicola followed a path of flower petals to a bench
in front. She sat and waited, breathing the perfumed air.

After a few minutes, a side door opened and a man appeared, whistling and pushing a broom. He wore jeans and a plaid shirt and, on his belt, a silver knob about the size of a yo-yo with keys dangling from it.

The janitor. He got halfway down the aisle before he noticed Nicola.

“Did they forget the flower girl?”

“No,” Nicola said. “I want to talk to the priest.”

“Father Mark’s gone.”

“What?” Nicola cried. “But I came to confess!”

“He just finished a wedding. He’s gone for the day.”

Nicola folded forward, pressing her forehead against the bench in front.

“Is it that bad?” the janitor asked.

Nicola looked up again. “Yes!”

The janitor leaned the broom against the wall and came and sat in front of her. His eyes were kind and gray.

“Do you want to tell me about it? Get it off your chest. If that doesn’t help, you can come back and talk to Father Mark.”

“Will it count?” she asked. “I mean, if you’re not a priest.”

“Why not?” the janitor said.

“Okay. But I should tell you first that I don’t even go to church.”

He shrugged. “That’s not important. Try to be good. That’s what I believe.”

“What should I call you if you’re not the priest?”

“Ignacio. That’s my name. What’s yours?”

“Nicola. Okay, Ignacio. I have a lot to say.” Her eyes got watery at the thought of all the terror and destruction she had to put into words. “I’m not here for myself. I’m confessing for someone else. That’s allowed, isn’t it?”

“Technically, no,” he said. “But I’m not the priest, so go ahead.”

“I’m here for June Bug. Can you confess for an ­animal?”

He drew back. “You’re here to confess for a bug?”

“No, my dog. Her name is June Bug. Because she was born in June. Ignacio, she’s so bad. She does so many terrible things. She doesn’t mean to. I see it in her eyes. She’s as shocked as we are when she sees what she’s done.”

And it gushed out of Nicola. All the shoes June Bug had chewed. The television remote controls she’d ­carried away and hidden. Julie Walters-Chen.

Ignacio interrupted. “Keep her outside.”

“She digs holes. She wrecked the lawn. Dad says it looks like an exploded minefield. Also, she ran away. Twice. Do you see how bad she is? Are these sins, Ignacio?”

“Sins? I don’t think you could call them sins, no.”

“She steals.”

He frowned.

“She steals Jackson’s Matchbox cars and eats the wheels. Then she hides them, too. And she smokes.”

“Your dog smokes?”

Nicola could tell by his shocked expression that smoking was a sin for sure.

“Well, she eats anything on the ground, even cigarette butts. When we catch her, we shout, ‘No smoking! No smoking!’ Is there such a place as hell, Ignacio?”

He squirmed, like he was sitting on something sharp.

“I’m supposed to say there is. But really? I’m not sure. I think everyone makes his own way in the world as best he can. The real sinners? Thieves and murderers, people like that? I hope they find a way to make amends.”

“For dogs, I mean,” Nicola said. “Is there a hell for dogs?”

“For dogs? No. I say that with confidence.”

“Because I’m worried about June Bug. Jared says that’s where she’s going.”

“She’s an animal. She’s innocent of sin,” Ignacio said. “Whatever June Bug’s done, Nicola? Consider it undone. Okay?”

“Really?”

“Really. Feel better?”

She nodded, uncertain.

“Good! Now run home and see what that naughty dog of yours is up to.”

“I’m almost afraid to.” Nicola stood up. “Thank you.”

She walked out, following the trail of flower petals down the aisle. When she glanced back, Ignacio had taken up the broom again and was chuckling to himself.

Outside, the wedding crowd had left. Lindsay was waiting by herself. “How did it go?”

“The priest wasn’t there,” Nicola said. “Just the janitor.”

“That’s Ignacio, the manager of our apartment building. He tells me when the weddings are. The priest would be too busy to hear about a dog anyway. So Ignacio’s better.”

Nicola said, “I just hope he’s right. About June Bug not going to hell, I mean.”