3. Parochial
Oh, this was back in the years of licking stamps and the summers of skipping stones that my siblings and I (Consider, Comfort and Melvin) lived in a region of dusty Pigeons and a town of a single, roundabout road. As did the all children of the area, we went to a St. Ernie’s Parochial School, which was run by the Parish, who suddenly perished.
When the final Summer in that final year fell to Fall’s will, Consider and Comfort and I dawdled and bounced and jumped toward our first day of school, but when we got there, it was not. Nothing remained but the grass, whose blades stood tall and shone green, as if the floorboards of St. Ernie’s had never, ever slept there.
We exchanged looks belonging to eyes that looked far more crushed than surprised. Silently agreed, we all turned around, where stood amongst the trees, our peers and classmates in the snowing of leaves.
Everyone knew the facts, but that was all.
One young lad in the front was named Christmas. He sat down on his bag, pushed his fists into his cheeks, and asked, “Where?”
Consider touched a hand to his chin, a hand to that hand’s elbow, and answered, “I suppose..: Heaven. Yes, the whole building went to Heaven. If the school is not on the hill, then the only other place it could possibly be is Heaven.”
Everyone shared a thought, as sometimes used to happen in those days and years. This thought was: School left for Heaven without me.
A tall girl in the middle by the name of Female stood out in the crowd, cleared her throat, and asked, “Why?”
Comfort took a slow breath in through his nose and then let the same slow breath out of his mouth, followed by the words, “Heaven has not forgotten us. Heaven is testing us. We will pass the test as long as we all help one another by giving each other Heaven’s first gift: hugs.”
Everyone shared a second thought
The girl with whom I shared my first kiss was off to one side, a few feet away, and was also named Female. Her lips were a red heart that broke, horizontally, when she opened them to ask, “How?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I looked around for a spell, exhaled a lot and loudly, then finally made a fart noise with my mouth.
Female laughed; no one else did, including Female.
The congregation looked to my brothers, who looked to me, panning everyone’s spotlit gaze back on to me, and then in messy unison everyone in the circle bellowed one gun-powdered, “HOW?”
I didn’t know, so I said, “I don’t know! Why the Hell should I know? And, personally, I don’t think it went to Heaven. I don’t know if it did or not, but it sounds kind of ridiculous if you ask me. Heaven sounds kinda like chump change too, now that I think about it.”
Everyone closed their eyes. Everyone but Female, who began climbing a tree. As I neared the circle of children, it split down the middle to create a narrow pathway, but I like my personal space, so I walked around instead. I stopped to holler “Goodbye” up at the tree that Female was climbing and I smiled as I saw her underwear.
“Farewell” she echoed back and blew a kiss down, but it got stuck on a branch.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole town has perished by now.
Oh shit! That reminds me – I should probably call my parents.
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