What Night Brings

Enticed by the promise of candy, Marci and Corin go to a neighbor’s prayer meeting without Delia’s permission. They sing songs with other kids and listen to the group leader, Miss Patt, tell stories that keep Marci’s attention. Miss Patt tells the children in attendance, “those of you who want to go to heaven must come up to me now and accept Jesus in your heart” (53). When none of the other children show interest, Marci agrees to be saved.

After the meeting, Marci and Corin are disappointed by the stale candy. When they return home, Delia is furious to learn that the girls went to a meeting outside their own church.

The next day, Marci and her family visit cousins. Marci listens to the adults talk about their workers’ unions. Bored and hungry, Marci grabs a leftover cucumber from a plate in the dining room.

Eddie sees Marci eat the cucumber without permission. He berates her in front of her cousins and tells her that he has no choice but to spank her.

When they return home, Marci hears Eddie talking badly about their cousin’s family and hopes he has forgotten about her punishment. However, Eddie orders her to choose a belt from his room. Marci is clearly familiar with beatings, because she “knew firsthand why one or the other hurt more” (60). After Eddie punishes her, Marci goes to her room and wishes for her father to die.

Marci practices her first confession, deciding which sins she will tell the priest. She is delighted when another 11-year-old, Gloria, joins her catechism class. After overhearing a racially insensitive conversation between Mother Superior and Sister ‘Lizabeth, Marci waves to Gloria. Gloria returns the gesture, and Marci believes she has found companionship.

Delia forces Marci to stay in catechism. A new teacher, Miss Beauchamp, arrives to lead Holy Communion training. Marci dislikes Miss Beauchamp, who hits two of Marci’s classmates “with a ruler so hard they cried” (62).

Miss Beauchamp speaks in a fake French accent, something Marci and Gloria mock. Once, as Miss Beauchamp bends over, Marci sees her bra and part of her breasts. This makes Marci feel sick, further feeding the disdain Marci has for the older woman. She isn’t scared of Beauchamp—the woman is less frightening than Eddie, and Eddie “wouldn’t like anyone else hitting me” (64).

Miss Beauchamp teaches the steps of Holy Communion. The symbolic eating of wafers and drinking of wine makes Marci uncomfortable. To her, it sounds like mind control. There is also a prayer involved, which Marci “practiced […] so that I could say it so fast it was all one word” (66). Marci questions these traditions but goes through the motions.

Marci goes to her first confession. As she waits for her turn, she watches her classmates exit the confession booth looking somber. She approaches the booth herself and recognizes the voice inside as Father Chacón’s. Marci’s nerves cause her to sweat and shake.

Marci stumbles over her words and admits only to what she practiced—hitting her sister and missing Mass. She is frustrated by the priest’s questions. As he asks for more detail, Marci becomes “so scared I could hardly breathe […] And it was so bad now that I decided to tell him the truth” (71). She admits that she wants her father to disappear and acknowledges her attraction to other girls.

Father Chacón reminds Marci to forgive others and says there is nothing wrong with liking other girls. She is delighted until she realizes that Chacón cannot see her and has assumed she is a boy. Without correcting him, Marci finishes her confession, her fears of Communion lifted.

Marci and her family go to a church fundraiser with Tommy and his wife, Arlene. Eddie calls Tommy a “holy roller,” because Tommy spends so much of his time with priests. Eddie dislikes Father Chacón, whose hand he refuses to shake.

Eddie and Arlene drink alcohol at the fundraiser. This isn’t unusual—Marci can immediately “tell there was going to be lots of drinking tonight” (76). After eating, Tommy excuses himself to help in the kitchen as Marci and Corin play. Marci chases another child through the building. The child runs outside, and Marci walks through the empty church alone.

She hears laughter from the confession booth and hides, not wanting to get in trouble. After a few minutes of watching the booth, she sees “a man [walk] out tucking in his shirt” (78). It is Uncle Tommy, who leaves through the church doors. A moment later, Chacón exits the booth from the same door as Tommy. Marci knows this wasn’t a confession but does not say anything when she returns to the cafeteria.

Before leaving, Marci sees Chacón and Tommy briefly looking at each other. Eddie and Arlene are too drunk to notice.

Marci wakes up to find that one of her wishes has come true—she has grown a penis. At first, she is afraid and isolated: “No one […] knew I wanted to be a boy. Maybe I should have told someone, because now I really needed somebody to talk to” (80). Marci touches her penis and checks to see if she has grown testicles. However, she realizes it is a dream when Delia wakes her by slapping her hand away from her genitals.