Chapter 19

It is Easter Sunday - Antonio and the other children are outside of church, waiting to go inside and receive their first Communion. The boys and girls are in separate lines, with parents nearby, including Antonio's mother and father and Ultima. The girls are lined up neatly, but the boys talk and fidget, and Bones gets whacked on the head several times by one of the high school girls in charge of keeping order. Florence stands nearby, watching but not participating. The children enter and sit in the front row.

During the first part of the mass, Antonio thinks about his first confession the previous day, and how he had mixed feelings about revealing his thoughts and telling "everything, everything I thought was a sin". As the priest performs the Communion "ceremony of changing the bread into flesh and the wine into blood...of the risen Christ", Antonio imagines that God will soon be with him and inside of him and will answer all of his questions. Abel and Horse whisper about blood and Antonio thinks of the blood of Lupito and Narciso in the river and the hills of the llano.

Finally the children get up and kneel at the altar to receive the Communion. After Antonio is given the wafer and wine, he bows his head and waits for God to speak to him, but this confuses the other children who are continuing to move quickly in the line. "There wasn't time just to sit and discover Him, like I could do when I sat on the creek bank and watched the golden carp swim in the sun-filtered waters."

Antonio moves on and tries to sense God's presence and ask some of the many questions he has: "Why did Lupito die? Why did you allow Narciso to be murdered when he was doing good? Why do you punish Florence? Why doesn't he believe? Will the golden carp rule--?" But Antonio does not hear a Voice within, only silence, and he wonders if he did not prepare for First Communion correctly. He looks toward the statue of the Virgin and sees her smiling, "her outstretched arms offering forgiveness to all." A short time later, the mass is over.

Discussion Questions
1. How is Antonio's experience of First Communion different than that of the other children?