Born a Crime

Funnily enough, I didn’t get
into trouble with my mom when it
happened. There was no ass-
whooping waiting for me at home.
She’d lost the bursary when she’d
left her job at ICI, and paying for
private school was becoming a
burden. But more than that, she
thought the school was
overreacting. The truth is she
probably took my side against
Maryvale more often than not. She
agreed with me 100 percent about
the Eucharist thing. “Let me get this
straight,” she told the principal.
“You’re punishing a child because
he wants Jesus’s body and Jesus’s