Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card

Author:Orson Scott Card
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Families, Missing children, Family, Horror, Household - North Carolina, Household, North Carolina, General, American, Supernatural, Occult fiction, Moving, Fiction, Domestic fiction, Family - North Carolina
ISBN: 9780061091315
Publisher: New York : HarperCollins, c1992.
Published: 1993-10-28T06:00:00+00:00

9: June Bugs

This is what Stevie got for his eighth birthday, on June 3, 1983: his first wristwatch; a large Lego set which could be made into a castle; four pairs of shorts and four tank tops; his first dress slacks, white shirt, and kid-size tie for Sunday; and a computer game called Lode Runner for the Atari. It was a decent number of presents, despite their financial situation, but Step and DeAnne suspected that the present he liked best was that when school was dismissed at noon on his birthday, he was through with second grade, through with that school, through with those kids, and home at last for the summer.

In fact, that was what Step wrote to Stevie on the inside of his birthday card: “You made it, school’s out, you were brave and strong and we’re proud of you.” Stevie read the card silently, looked up at his father without a sign of emotion on his face, and said, “Thanks.”

That Sunday at church Stevie wore his new Sunday clothes for the first time, and when the bishop called him up to the stand to announce that he was going to be baptized that afternoon, it almost broke Step’s heart to see how small he was, and yet how much he had grown; how young and how old their eldest had become.

After sacrament meeting, DeAnne took the kids and led them off to Primary. While Step was still gathering up his notebook and scriptures to head for gospel doctrine class, Lee Weeks came up to him, obviously bursting with excitement about something.

“Your son’s getting baptized!” said Lee.

“That’s right,” said Step.

“Well I’m a priest,” said Lee. “They ordained me a priest right after I was baptized myself.”

“That’s right,” said Step. He knew what was coming next, but he could hardly believe that anyone would have the gall to intrude so badly into someone else’s family.

“Well I can baptize your boy!” said Lee.

Brother Freebody happened to be standing nearby, talking to somebody else, but Step saw that he heard what Lee had said, and Brother Freebody rolled his eyes in sympathy.

“You have the authority to baptize,” said Step. “But we have the custom in the Church that if a father is a worthy priesthood holder, he baptizes his own children.”

“Sure,” said Lee. “But I’ve never baptized anybody. This is my first chance. You’ve baptized a lot of people. On your mission, right?”

“You’re nineteen,” said Step. “Prepare yourself and in a year you can be ordained an elder and go on a mission yourself and baptize everybody who receives the gospel from you.”

“But why should I wait?” asked Lee.

“Because Stevie is my son,” said Step.

“All the more reason,” said Lee. He lowered his voice a little. “I told you, God is with me. I’d give him a real baptism. Like John the Baptist gave Jesus.”

“Lee, I have the same priesthood you have, when it comes to baptizing. He’ll be just as baptized when I do it as he would be if anybody else with that same authority did it.

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