Chapter 18

This chapter starts on Ash Wednesday. To Antonio, this is a day of dread, a day to realize that the body is nothing and will disintegrate and disappear. But then the thought of the enduring soul raises him up from this morbid truth.

During the forty days of lent, Antonio thinks of little else except the goal of first communion and saving his soul from an eternity in hell. He has dreams that people he knows are burning in the inferno. Florence, his friend, was one of the people that often appeared in these dreams. Antonio wants to save his friend from this fate and begs him to answer the priest's questions in catechism class. But Florence is not a believer and his reply is "You mean, when the priest asks where is God, I am to say God is everywhere: He is the worms that await the summer heat to eat Narciso. He shares the bed with Tenorio and his evil daughters_____" Samuel tells Antonio that in the summer they will tell Florence the legend of the golden carp so that Florence might have something good to believe in.

Antonio and his classmates finish their catechism classes and at last on the Saturday before Easter, prepare to go to their first confession. As the children are waiting to enter the church on this day, they decide to "practice" confession. Against his will they force Antonio to play the part of the priest. The first two to "confess" are Horse and Bones. Then the children insist that Florence make a confession. But Florence says that he doesn't have any sins and that God has sinned against him. The children are shocked by this and Florence goes on to say. "You refuse to see the truth, or to accept me because I do not believe in your lies! I say God has sinned against me because he took my father and mother from me when I needed them, and he made my sisters whores-----He has punished all of us without just cause." The children are angry and scared by Florence's words, they want Antonio to punish him. Antonio himself is scared since the other children are calling out "beat him, stone him, kill him." Antonio finds the courage to defy the other children and say there will be no punishment. The mob of small children then turn their anger towards Antonio. They tear off his clothes and hold him on the ground. Horse then proceeds to sit on Antonio and punch him repeatedly. "The blows of the knuckles coming down again and again on my breastbone were unbearable, but Horse knew no pity, and there was no pity on the faces of the others." Finally the beating stops because the priest is calling the children into the church. Florence helps Antonio get dressed. He says to Antonio, "You could never be their priest."

Antonio then goes into the church and into the confessional.


Discussion question:

1. Do you think that any of the children confess to what had just happened on the church grounds?