Chapter Four

“Don’t you know who Jesus is?” Sara asks me.

“Of course I do,” I tell her, “He’s the baby who invented Christmas, right?”

“He’s the messiah. He saved us all by dying for our sins,” Sara says.

“The baby saved us all by dying?” I ask. “How’d the baby die?”

“He was nailed to a cross. Like I said, he suffered so that we may be saved,” she says.

“They nailed a baby to a cross? Who would do such a thing?” I ask.

“He wasn’t always a baby. He grew up and became God,” Sara says.

Aaqil speaks up and says, “Jesus grew up and became a prophet.”

I'm surprised that Aaqil spoke up because I always thought that he didn’t speak our language because he had a strange surname. Plus, my classmates say that he’s Muslim, so we all thought he was from Mindanao and we thought that people from Mindanao spoke in a Mindanawi language we wouldn’t understand.

“Jesus is not a prophet! Jesus is God!” Sara says. She seems a little angry.

Miss Torre, our new adviser, has to calm her down and tell everyone that some people believe that Jesus is a God and some people believe that Jesus is a prophet. I raise my hand again. “But who’s right?” I ask.
Ms. Torre has that look on her face similar to what my parents have when I ask them about how babies are made. She has a half-smile on her face, but she doesn’t know what to say. She says, “We can talk about that later, Lucas. Right now, we should focus on our introductions. Why don’t you go next?”

So I tell everyone, “Hi, I’m Loki. I’m ten. Every Sunday, my parents and I go to a place we haven’t been before. Sometimes we go to the park. Sometimes we go to the zoo. Sometimes we go to the beach…”
Sara raises her hand and asks, “You don’t go to church and worship God?”

“No,” I say.

Before I could continue, Sara raises her hand again and asks, “So, your family doesn’t pray?”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Like, does your family thank God for his blessings and ask for more blessings? Does your family ask to be forgiven for your sins? Does your family talk to God?” Sara asks.

“Uhm… We always thank people. When we eat at restaurants we sometimes thank the chef for our food. And we always, always thank the waiter and we always leave a tip whether or not the waiter did a good job because Dad says that if you’re mean to the waiter he’ll put disgusting things in your food,” I tell her.

“Is your family atheist, like my Uncle Johnny?” Sara asks. Sara looks sad like she’s about to cry and I feel bad and I want to say sorry for being an atheist but I don’t know what atheist means.

“What’s an atheist?” I ask Miss Torre.

“An atheist is a person who doesn’t believe in Jesus or Allah or Yahweh,” says Miss Torre. I suddenly remembered Mom’s bedtime stories about people living in Olympus, the highest mountain in the world. There was Zeus and Hera and their many God children. I found out later that Everest and not Olympus was the highest mountain in the world. I asked Mom how this happened. I asked Mom, “Did Everest grow and became taller than Olympus?” She said, “First of all, mountains don’t grow. Second, Olympus isn’t real, dear. Those stories are make-believe.” She showed me pictures of what’s found at the top of Everest. There are no gods there, just a few tourists in winter clothing with sunburned noses.

So, I ask Ms. Torre, “Are they like Zeus and Hera and the other gods?”

“Yes. Sort of,” says Ms. Torre.

“Oh… We don’t pray to them or talk to them because they’re make-believe. Mount Olympus is not real, the highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest and there are no gods living there,” I tell them. “Do you talk to make-believe gods, ma’am?” I ask Ms. Torre.

“Jesus is not make-believe. Jesus is real,” Sara mumbles. I could tell she’s sad because she looks at her feet and taps them when she wants to be somewhere else, like in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ I want to apologize to her for making her sad, but I’m not sure what to be sorry for. “Is Jesus real, Ms. Torre?” I ask.

Ms. Torre looks so confused. I want to apologize to her too for making her so confused, but she’s a grown up so she’s not supposed to be confused about what’s real and what’s not, right? But I guess grown-ups get confused too. My parents also get confused about who should drive and who should make breakfast.

Finally, Ms. Torre says, “Boys and girls! It’s recess time! We can talk about Jesus some other time. Right now, let’s all eat our snacks!”