Lou

Ralph better come back. He said we’d go look for bottles today. He promised. And if you promise something and then you don’t do it, that’s like a lie—it is a lie—so that’s a sin and you have to tell Father.

I went last week. I got Father Clay.

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been three weeks since my last confession. The sins that I remember are: I lied to my teacher, I quarreled with my brother, I hit a kid at school, I disobeyed my parents, I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

That’s what Ralph said he told Father Rowley.

I’m sure.

It’s from a record our dad always plays when he’s drunk. Johnny Cash. He has a deep voice. Daddy was playing it last night when me and Ralph were in bed. Our mom made him turn it down but then he started yelling about the president and the Pope being in cahoots. I asked Ralph what’s cahoots. He told me never mind, just make sure I say a sincere Act of Contrition before I go to sleep.

In case they drop the bomb, he meant.

I told him I went to confession last week.

He said my soul had to be spotless.

I said it was.

He told me to say one anyway.

I told him it wouldn’t be sincere.

He told me just say it.

I asked him if he was scared.

He didn’t answer.

I asked him again.

“Little bit,” he said.

So that scared me a little, Ralph admitting it like that. So I said a sincere Act of Contrition for everything I ever did—every sin, I mean—especially the sin of hitting people, that’s probably my biggest fault.

So now I’m spotless.

But you know what I would like to tell Ralph? What puts a nice big spot on your soul? Promising something and then not doing it. So if he thinks they’re going to drop the bomb on us today he better get back and go looking for bottles.

I had to watch Road Runner.

I usually watch Bugs Bunny before Garfield Goose but it was all news except Road Runner. I hate Road Runner. I wish he would at least talk, or the dog, say something. Sometimes the dog will hold up a sign that says Help or Oops or something, but they never speak, either one of them. Road Runner just says Beep-beep, with that smile on his face.

I wish the dog would kill him.