The Jeffersons, Part Two

Saturday Mass

“Say your fine” Tommy whispered. “say your fine or you will really get it!”

Mrs. Jefferson looked in the rear view mirror and asked again, “Harry, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, mom” Harry said rubbing his arm where Tommy had punched him and gave Tommy his meanest look. They had been arguing in the back of the Jefferson’s huge van over how to go about convincing Mrs. Jefferson to take us to the pound. We were going to Mass together. I went to Mass on Sundays with my parents and plenty of times during the school week with my class at St. Benedict’s but I had never been to Mass on Sat. before. We were going to the first Saturday Mass and to confession. The Jefferson’s always went to Mass and confession on the first Saturday of the month. Madison had suggested I go with them so we could have clean souls when we started praying for a dog for me. I didn’t think it could hurt and while I standing in line to light a candle for a dog of my very own, I got a warm feeling looking at the statue of Mary. She looked so peaceful and nice, I thought she would like to help me get a dog. I bet Jesus had a dog. Confession was good, I never really did anything so bad that I didn’t want to go. Sometimes I thought about making something up so I would have an interesting thing to tell the priest, like I had been cussing, or fighting or something but then I would be lying and I would have to confess that too, and really, what would be the point of that?

After Mass we went to the park with a picnic. Mr. Jefferson threw the football with all of us while Mrs. Jefferson got lunch out of the cooler. After we said the blessing, which included Kennedy saying “and please help Sammy get a dog” at the end, everyone started eating. I just looked at the food.

“Don’t you like fried chicken, Sam?” Mr. Jefferson noticed I hadn’t taken any.

“Yes, sir, I do, I‘ve just never had it like this before.”

“What do you mean, like this?” Tommy said, licking his fingers and tossing his drumstick bone into the trash. “You’ve never had a picnic?”

“Um, no” I said, feeling like a total weirdo, “I’ve never eaten fried chicken with the bones still in it before.”

The Jefferson kids just looked at me.

“Do they make chickens without bones?” Tyler asked.

Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson chuckled while the Maddy, Tommy and Harry howled.

“No, all chickens have bones, Ty” Mrs. Jefferson said gently, “Sam is just used to eating boneless pieces of chicken.” “Go ahead and try it Sam. I am sure you’ll like it.”

At this point I just wanted to crawl under a rock. I am sure they all thought I was a spoiled, rich kid or something. I couldn’t believe my mom had done this to me! Sometimes I think she is out to ruin my reputation as a kid.

“Thank you.” I took a piece and ate it, just like the other kids had. It was really good too! I wondered why I had never had this before. I was definitely bringing this up with mom.

This is an excerpt from "The Jeffersons," an unpublished Children's Story by Rachel Ogea. Visit her blog at jrogea.blogspot.com