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ILLUSTRATION BY JORDAN ISIP
issue
"My mother says the Jews
killed Christ."
Now this was a trickier ques-
tion. Who was Christ? "They did
not," I said, but all I could be cer-
tain of was that I, at least, had
not killed Christ — whoever he
was — because I had never killed
anyone, at least not knowingly.
Then I remembered stepping on
a cockroach once, and stomping
on ants in the kitchen. Maybe I
had killed Christ by accident.
"Prove it," Octavio said.
I told him I would ask Father
about it and give him a reply the
next day.
That night I asked Father why
I was a Jew. He hoisted me up by
the armpits, sat me on his knee,
and told me a long and compli-
cated story about God, the Bible,
and a Jew named Moses. When
I asked if it was true that the
Jews had killed Christ, he
frowned and said the Romans
had done it. He said I should pay
no attention to Arturo.
When Arturo approached me
next day, Father's story had gone
clear out of my head. All I re-
membered was that the Romans
had done it.
cr)
'The Romans killed Christ," I —
said.
"Who are the Romans?" Arturo >_
asked.
I said I wasn't sure, but would
ask Father and let him know.
KINDERGARTEN page 44
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