Lou

She called him back.

She felt sorry for him, for being so fat and sad. But he was just faking. Not faking being fat but being sad. He wasn’t sad. He was just trying to make her feel sorry for him so she’d give him the Jesus rock. And it worked. She told Ralph to go get it.

I ran back fast and wrapped it in our blanket. I was going to sneak out the back door and hide it somewhere, I was trying to think where, then Ralph came in and told me no. He told me to go and give it to Fatso.

I said, “Ra-alph!”

“We’ll get it back,” he said. “Don’t worry. This is part of it.”

“Part of what?”

“The story we’re in, The Miracle of the Rock.”

“Well...can’t we hide the rock? Can’t that be part of the story?”

“No. We can’t be disobedient, Lou. We have to be perfect. Otherwise we won’t win.”

“But it’s ours, Ralph! We found it!”

“And we’ll get it back, I promise. So go ahead. Give it to him. Go on.”

“Can’t we just—”

“No, Lou.”

“Ra-alph.”

“Quit whining. The little girl’s not a whiner.”

“Yes she was, she was always whining.”

“I don’t mean the movie. This isn’t a movie, Lou.”

He meant the real Jacinta, in that picture in the booklet. He was right, she didn’t look like a whiner. She looked like a tough little shit. That’s what Daddy called me once, a tough little shit.

I’m really not, though. Ask Ralph.