Ralph

He started going on about how much we reminded him of the brother and sister in that movie we all saw at school Thursday about the children of Fatima. He said it was downright scary how much we reminded him.

I told him, “Yeah, right...”

“No, I’m serious. I’m not just saying that. Why would I?”

I didn’t know.

He said Mary chose those kids, picked them out to be the ones, the only ones. “She didn’t appear to anyone else in the village, did she? Or am I wrong? Did she?”

“No...” I said.

“Same with you two kids.” He said Jesus chose me and Lou to be the ones who found the Sacred Rock—that’s what he called it, the Sacred Rock. He said the reason the Fatima kids got chose was because of how special they were, how religious. Same with me and Lou, he said. “Look what you two were doing just a minute ago—praying, down on your knees, in the dirt, in broad daylight.”

Which was true.

“That’s the kind of thing Jesus likes to see,” he said. “That’s the kind of brother and sister He chooses out of all the others. See what I’m saying?” He tilted his big head at me. “Do you see? What I’m trying to say?”

I kind of did see. I mean, let’s face it, we were kind of special, me and Lou, you know? When you think about it? Going down on our knees like that? In the dirt? In broad daylight? How many other kids would do that? I couldn’t think of any.

Except maybe the children of Fatima.

But we still had to bring the Sacred Rock to Father Clay. That’s something the children of Fatima would know they had to do. So I told him he still had to hand it over.

“Right now,” Lou said.

We stepped closer, both of us.