Bless Us Father (9 page)

The prior Mass had just finished and people were still filing out of the church when the Rileys arrived.

“Father O’Malley must have said the nine o’clock Mass. He always talks way too much,” Mr. Riley said knowingly.

Mary Margaret’s heart skipped a beat. If Father O’Malley did the nine o’clock Mass, then Father Antonio would surely be doing the ten-thirty Mass.

She looked around and noticed that there were more people arriving for this Mass than were leaving the one Father O’Malley had just done. There seemed to be a lot of women and girls, too. Or maybe it just looked that way to Mary Margaret. Father Antonio had chosen her to be his special assistant, and she didn’t like the idea of anyone else trying to weasel in on her territory.

Mary Margaret and her mother covered their heads, dipped their fingers in holy water as they entered the church and crossed themselves. They followed Mr. Riley to the front of the church and their usual pew. They knelt down in unison, said their prayers, then sat back in the pew to wait for Mass to begin.

The choir was singing in English today, rather than Latin.

Mary Margaret was seated between her parents, and Mrs. Riley leaned over her in order to whisper loudly to Mr. Riley. “It’s getting far too modern for me. Before you know it the whole Mass will be in English.”

Mr. Riley nodded his agreement then opened the Sunday bulletin and was soon engrossed in reading the church news.

Mary Margaret was waiting for Mass to begin when Father Antonio entered the front of the church and began giving instructions to the altar boys. He was wearing green vestments and had on a beautiful embroidered stole. It was cream colored and gold, with symbols of the Eucharist on it. He stood straight and tall, and looked so dignified. His black hair was combed neatly in place, and his normal shadow of a beard was gone, indicating he had probably just shaved.

She looked around the church and noticed that many of the women also had their eyes trained on Father Antonio. She supposed it was natural, and that most of them were just watching him in order to be prepared for the start of Mass, but it irritated her a bit just the same.

Trying to refocus on the service, Mary Margaret opened her misalette to the readings and followed along with the reader. When it was time for the gospel to be read, she again focused on Father Antonio as he walked to the podium. Visions of the two of them in the rectory the previous evening needled their way into her thoughts. She felt herself growing warm as she remembered his hug and the feel of his lips on her neck. The warmness settled low in her abdomen, causing her to glance around to see if anyone was noticing her.

She didn’t understand these new sensations in her body, but suspected they had something to do with sex. And sex was something she couldn’t talk about, let alone ask anyone about. Her sex education so far consisted of the school nurse taking the sixth grade girls aside to tell them how their bodies worked and to talk to them about getting their periods. The nurse had briefly explained about pregnancy, but hadn’t mentioned the man’s role in it. The girls on the playground filled in the rest, the ones with older sisters being a bit more knowledgeable. Mary Margaret did know that when a man and woman marry, they engage in the marital act and join their bodies together in order to produce children, but now she was wondering if the marital act was ever done just for pleasure. Monday she was going to have to ask Linda if she knew the answer to that question.

“The Mass is ended, now go in peace to love and serve the Lord,” Father Antonio was saying as he faced the parishioners with his arms held wide.

Mary Margaret stood with her parents and watched the altar boys and then the priest leave the church. The church emptied, and soon they were approaching Father Antonio, who was greeting people as they left Mass.

“Good morning, Father,” Mr. Riley said. “Nice homily. I managed to stay awake.”

“Glad you enjoyed it, Sean. You look very nice today, Mrs. Riley,” Father said.

Mary Margaret watched as her mother blushed and acted like a high school girl. It was so embarrassing, seeing her drool all over the priest. She was mortified. And if she could admit it to herself, she was a bit jealous, too.

“And good morning to you, Mary Margaret,” Father said as he briefly placed a hand on her shoulder before moving on to the next group of people.

This time, Mary Margaret knew why he was barely paying attention to her and her feelings weren’t hurt. After all, they had an agreement, didn’t they?

#

“Linda, I made lunch for both of us so we don’t have to go to the cafeteria. I want to go somewhere quiet to talk.” Mary Margaret whispered when the lunch bell rang.

Looking puzzled, Linda said, “Sounds serious. Is it something bad?”

Mary Margaret giggled, “No, at least I don’t think so. I just need some information about sex, that’s all.”

“All you need to know is don’t do it until you’re married,” Linda answered.

“Oh, I know that, and I don’t plan on it until then. I just feel kind of stupid, though, and thought you could help.”

“Oh yeah, me and all my worldly experience.”

“I’m only asking you because you come from a big family and have older brothers and sisters, so I thought you’d know more than me.”

Linda puffed her chest out and nodded wisely. “I suppose I do know more than you. I’ll be glad to fill you in.”

They walked across the campus, careful not to engage in conversation with other students while they walked, and arrived at the shrine to Our Lady near the chapel. No one ever came here for lunch, so it offered them a secluded spot to talk.

“Here’s a tuna sandwich for you and a bag of chips,” Mary Margaret said. “I have chocolate chip cookies for afterwards and I just got us each a milk out of the machine.”

“Yum. You make good tuna,” Linda said, her mouth already full.

“I don’t know how to ask this. I feel so stupid about the whole sex thing and I think I ought to know this stuff by now, but my mom won’t discuss it until I start dating. It’s just that...I mean...do you ever?”

“Just spit it out, Mary Margaret. I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

“I know that men and women put their bodies together when they’re married and want to have a baby. The school nurse showed us diagrams of male and female sexual parts when we had our talk in sixth grade, remember?”

“Of course I remember, dum-dum. We were there together,” Linda answered impatiently.

“Well I could figure out how the parts get together, and I know we’re supposed to stay virgins and save ourselves for marriage. I get all of that, but there’s something I’ve been wondering about lately. I feel sinful even asking this, but here goes. Do you think sex feels good? I mean do you think it’s fun?”

Linda put her hand over her mouth and started giggling, but composed herself as quickly as she could. “I’m sure it’s fun. Otherwise how do you explain eight kids in my family?”

“Come on, Linda. I really want to know. Have you heard anything about it?”

Linda leaned closer and whispered, “Well...from what my sisters say some older friends told them, boys really like sex and want it all the time, but it’s different for girls.”

“What do you mean, different?”

“You know, girls are the ones that can get pregnant, and then there’s that other thing.”

“What other thing?”

“Okay. I can’t tell you who it was that told my sister, so I’ll just say it was a public school girl. When she had sex for the first time it hurt really really bad, and she bled a lot.”

Mary Margaret clasped her hand over her mouth. “Did she have to go to the hospital?”

“No, you ding dong. It wasn’t that much blood. It was more like the first day of her period. Anyway, it hurt a lot and she decided she wasn’t going to do it again until she got married and had to.”

“Did she get over being afraid? Did she ever get married?”

Linda leaned in close again and said, “Oh, she didn’t wait until she got married. She did it again a couple of months later and found out she liked it a lot. She got pregnant, though, and her family sent her out of state to have the baby.”

“Oh my gosh! Now I know who that is. It has to be your sister’s friend Karen. She hasn’t been around for months.”

Linda grabbed Mary Margaret’s arm. “Don’t you dare tell anyone. Promise?” she asked, squeezing hard.

“Ow! You’re hurting me. I promise I won’t tell.”

“Why are you interested in this stuff all of a sudden?” Linda asked. “You can’t even date, let alone think about sex.”

“Oh, I know, but there’s this other thing I’ve been wondering about.”

Linda rolled her eyes. “What now?”

“This is really embarrassing, but I need to know. Sometimes when I’m looking at a really cute guy, I get this warm feeling in my stomach and in my...well, you know.”

“No, I don’t know what you mean. I’ve never had anything like that and I also know I’m not supposed to right now.”

Mary Margaret glanced over at the statue of Our Lady who seemed to be looking right at her with a very disapproving look on her face. Mary Margaret turned quickly away.

“Come on, Linda. How about when you and Bobby kissed that night at the eighth grade dance? You were snuggling pretty close. Didn’t you feel something?”

“Only on my lips. He opened his mouth and pressed it really hard against mine, and his braces were cutting into my lips. Pain was all I felt, and it wasn’t down there, either.”

Mary Margaret laughed out loud at the mental picture of Bobby’s braces grinding into Linda’s lips.

Linda was looking closely at Mary Margaret. “You’ve never dated and you’ve never danced a close dance with anyone, and you’ve never kissed a guy that I know of, either. It seems kind of odd that all of a sudden you’re wondering about this stuff and getting warmies down there.”

“Forget I even brought it up. It’s only happened once and I was just wondering why, that’s all. You’re supposed to be my best friend. I can’t talk to anyone else in the world about it.”

“I am your best friend, Mary Margaret. You can always talk to me. I’m sorry I even questioned you.”

“It’s okay, Linda. I asked you because I knew you’d probably overheard your older brothers and sisters, no other reason.”

“And I did know, didn’t I?” Linda smiled smugly. “Listen, I just had an idea.”

“What’s your idea?”

“We have to make a pact right now, this very minute that we’ll talk to each other when we start dating boys and this sex stuff starts coming up. Let’s promise that we won’t do anything with a boy until we talk to each other, okay?”

Mary Margaret paused before answering and looked at the statue of Our Lady who was still staring intently back at her. “Good idea, Linda. I promise I’ll talk to you first before I do anything with any of the boys I date.”

“And I’ll talk to you first, too. I won’t let any boy get to first base without talking it over first.”

“That’s right. No boy is going to get to first base with either of us without the other knowing. Let’s shake on it,” Mary Margaret said, offering her hand to Linda who grasped it eagerly and shook hands heartily.

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

-General George Patton-

CHAPTER TEN

“Aren’t you nervous?” Mary Margaret asked, kicking her leg high in the air while shaking her black and gold paper pom-poms.

“Of course I am, ding-a-ling,” Linda said while kicking her leg even higher. "Push 'em back; shove 'em back, waaaaaaaaaay back," she shouted as she kicked.

Mary Margaret practiced jumping in the air and kicking her legs out to the side all the while flashing a big smile at the imaginary people sitting in the imaginary bleachers in front of her.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do the splits,” Linda said, positioning herself sitting with both legs out to the side. “This really hurts. How are we supposed to jump up in the air and then land on the ground this way?”

“I don’t know,” Mary Margaret said, pausing to catch her breath. “Maybe we don’t really need to know the hard stuff before tryouts.”

“Do you think they’ll choose us?” Linda asked, suddenly quiet and serious. “I think we’d be great cheerleaders.”

“Why wouldn’t they?” Mary Margaret replied, pushing her hair back from her face.

Linda curled her legs underneath her and sat quietly for a bit, not answering Mary Margaret.

“Linda, I’m talking to you,” Mary Margaret said. “We have as good a chance as anyone else.”

“Not really,” Linda said, tears filling her brown eyes and rolling down her nose. “We’re not part of the popular group
.”

“So what? I don’t see a lot of that going on here. We’ve practiced enough and we’re really good. We’ll do fine.”

“Maybe you will,” Linda said, looking pointedly at Mary Margaret. “You’re busty and have blonde hair, but what do I have? A flat chest, mousy brown hair, and freckles! What popular girl do you know that has freckles?”