They Were Dolphins, Chapter 4 part II

The man moved to talk to the boy’s mother and the boy realised that the man is the pastor from church. The pastor offered to give the mother and her two sons a ride home in his VW van. They gratefully accepted the help. They were glad to get off the sidewalk and out of the sun.

The boy was surprised to see Mia in the van and he sat next to her. She must have gotten a ride from the friendly pastor. They didn’t speak for fear of revealing the secrets of their tryst. The boy did, however, sneak his hand over to her side of the van bench seat to touch pinkies with her. She did not retract her hand, so the boy knew he was experiencing true love.

They drove past the trivium slowly. The boy, although he is a dolphin, does not know that dolphins sleep with one eye open. They are able to shutdown half their brain at a time to rest while the other half is active to search for danger. In this way, they can get enough sleep and remain safe in the ocean.

At home, the van pulled up in front of the driveway of the boy’s house and Mia ran across the street to her house. The pastor followed the boy and his mother inside the house without seeming to be invited. The boy’s brother stayed outside and played in the yard.

The pastor sat with the boy on the couch and told the boy that he is very proud of what he had done today at church. The pastor asked several questions about the boy’s feelings on topics. The boy was an expert at reading into questions the answer that were expected by adults. He produces satisfactory statements about his soul, God’s love for him, and the importance of belief.

The pastor explained that the boy’s mother had told him about bullying at school and he wondered how the boy felt about the topic. The boy answered with colourful language about how clever he was to avoid conflicts.

For example, the aggressive boys at school would ask their victims if they wanted “beef”. “Beef” meant a fight, so if the victim answered in the affirmative, they would get beaten up. If the victim answered in the negative, then the boys would beat up the person for refusing the generous gift.

The boy would avoid getting beat up by answering instead that he wanted “chicken”. “Chicken” was a word for cowardice. Then, he would run away, and he was quite fast.

The pastor mulled this information over and offered vague advice about acting like a man and standing up for oneself. At some point, it became clear that the pastor was merely passing time with the boy. He kept glancing in the direction of the mother’s bedroom door and checking his watch.

The pastor stood and bade the boy farewell. He told the boy to go outside and play for a bit while he talked to the boy’s mother. The boy nodded and pretended to leave by walking to the front door. The pastor knocked on the door to the bedroom and entered. The boy returned to sit on the couch and blew spit bubbles for a long while.

He heard the pastor and his mother talking about God loudly and seemed that they were arguing over something on the bed. Then, they sat in silence for a while. The pastor came out of the bedroom adjusting his suspenders and zipper. He was surprised to see the boy sitting on the couch, but quickly recovered.

The pastor pulled out an offertory envelope from his pocket. He placed the stuffed envelope on the living room table and told the boy that this is a gift from the congregation. The boy’s mother appeared in the doorway of her bedroom, looking dishevelled. The pastor turned and mentioned the envelope.

The pastor explains that this is a parting gift from the congregation. He says that he will be moving to a new city soon due to the “scandal” (the boy has no idea what that word means), and he will miss the “communion” (again, the boy has no idea) with his “flock”.

The boy’s mother waved her hand flippantly as if to flick the pastor out of the house. The pastor turned to the boy and patted his head condescendingly. The boy shrugged and continued sitting and blowing bubbles of spit. The pastor let himself out of the house.

The boy watched the pastor get into the van and saw him park it across the street in the car park at Mia’s house. The boy had never realised that that van was the same one he always saw in her garage.

The boy sat back down on the couch wondering what to do this fine Sunday. He went into the kitchen and searched through the drawers for something. He found a wire brush used to clean grills. He took the wire brush out to his brother and they walked down the street together. They stopped at cars parked along the street and painted designs into the sides and hoods of cars using the wire brush.

At first, they took their artwork seriously and drew pretty designs like birds, dogs, and stick figures. But as they moved down the street, they became sloppier with their craft and made crude circles, wavy lines, or X’s. They walked nearly all the way to the trivium and did not know the fact that lead in paint and gasoline was being phased out of use, even though lead is perfectly safe for the environment and humans in that form.

The boys eventually tired of the hard work of painting masterpieces on cars, and the boy began holding the wire brush loosely in his hand as he casually brushed each car they walked past on the street. They walked as far as the bottom of the hill when a car filled with four adults came tearing down the street and stopped next to the boys.

The driver yelled at the children, who cowered in fear on the sidewalk. The driver and the passengers yelled at the kids, asking where they lived. The boys knew well enough they were not supposed to talk to strangers, nor ride in cars with strangers, and not to reveal where they lived.