Then Rachael tried to help me by saying, “Maybe he thought it was just a joke.”

But Janet straightened her out. “Rachael, some things aren’t funny! One lady said she was poked in the eye!”

Dad said, “If we were staying at the Biea as usual instead of the Nazionale I’d send you to your room.” And he looked accusingly at Mom as if this proved even more how her ideas never worked.

“We can punish him another way,” said Mom.

Janet said, “Pull down his swimming trunks and paddle him right in front of everyone!”

“Janet!” said Mom.

“Keep out of this,” said Dad.

Then Janet said, “Well /would.”

“One more word out of you,” Dad said, “and you will be the one in trouble.”

I looked at Janet and wished I hadn’t because she looked back at me and mouthed the words, “You wait.”

Dad said, “Your punishment will be that you cannot play with Jennifer for the rest of this vacation.” And he sat down and picked up his copy of Christianity Today magazine and began to read an article about the growing divisions within the Lutheran Church.

I walked up the beach toward the snack bar to get away from my family and to plan how to kill Janet when the opportunity arose and also how I could see Jennifer without Dad knowing about it.

Chapter 23

I LEFT THE BEACH EARLY and walked back to Portofino alone. As soon as I got into town I climbed the steps to the church and went in. It was lit by the last rays of the late afternoon sun. The clusters of candles burning before the Virgin were glowing brightly in the failing light. No one else was there.

After I used the holy water and crossed myself I went over to kneel in front of Mary to pray. I lit a candle, and even put twenty lire into the box the way you were supposed to instead of just stealing the candle the way I did when I was little and came to play Roman Catholic.

In Pete and Penny Play and Pray they had a chapter on the false religions of the world and since the Roman Catholics were the worst, being the Whore of Babylon and all, the longest part was about a little Catholic boy they called Antonio and how sad it was that he believed he was praying to God when he was really worshiping an idol of Mary and praying, “Hail Mary, full of Grace.”