They crossed themselves as they passed the Cathedral; then they were walking by the Bishop’s huge house, with its iron fence; on his lawn pines and live oaks thrashed in the wind. ‘I’m going to learn an instrument,’ Eddie said. Paul looked up at him, and then at the cars driving with their lights on. The whole town seemed to be hurrying home before the winter rain. He thought of Eddie going to a woman’s house and taking piano lessons and at the end of the year playing in a recital, taking his turn among girls in velveteen dresses with barrettes in their hair. ‘I talked to Brother Eugene yesterday.’ ‘You didn’t tell me.’ ‘I thought about it during vacation, and I talked to my folks about it.’ ‘You’d take lessons at school? And be in the band?’ ‘I couldn’t be in the band for a while. It’s mostly just high school boys. But maybe by the eighth grade.’ Eddie was walking faster, looking up at the sky and the trees blowing above the rooftops. In the third grade, when they had both entered Cathedral, Paul had chosen Eddie as his friend.
What do You think about Adultery & Other Choices (2010)?
