Page 40

By Jack Joseph Smith

to wish my wish for everybody's happiness; This was my wish in prayerful silence long after this was said; Bless us oh Lord and these thy gifts which we are about to receive in thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen; I hope everyone will be happy for ever and ever. The argument started just a little while after we had finished dinner and I felt alot of fear. It was something about who was more stupid. And everything was stupid and there was a sacrilege in the home. Please stop it, I said. But it went on and on and began to build with no place to go. All the people had gone, but their distance was still there and it had to have come into the minds of my mother and father. They kept on arguing there in the living room and I slowly backed into the hall. I didn't know what to do and I didn't know why I was alone. But I was alone and that centered power began to come over me. I just stood there watching them and began to think about runing away. I was really afraid when I thought about it and felt that I could do it. Please stop it, I said. My father looked at me and told me that maybe I better go up stairs. I said I wanted to stay up and they became confused, because they knew it wasn't even my bedtime yet. And it was Christmas and I was supposed to be allowed to stay up late. My father turned away from me and continued talk ing to my mother in a somewhat lower voice. But there was already too much substance to nurture the confusion that had been forming through the day. The substance was strong and it wasn't even there any longer. Their voices began to build again, and as they looked around they could see that their guests were gone. I could see that my father was becoming more and more a

Original Scan

Page 40

AI Interpretation

GPT

Christmas night breaks open into an argument between the parents, and the child, frightened by the shouting and distance in the room, begins to imagine running away.

The language treats the quarrel as something almost sacrilegious, as if the holiday home itself has been violated by stupidity, noise, and whatever had been silently building all day. The child tries to stop it, cannot, and starts feeling the lonely power that makes escape thinkable.

Claude

The wishbone wish - made 'in prayerful silence' after grace, 'I hope everyone will be happy for ever and ever' - is answered almost at once by rupture. 'The argument started just a little while after we had finished dinner', over 'who was more stupid', and the boy names it as desecration: 'everything was stupid and there was a sacrilege in the home'. His twice-repeated 'Please stop it' fails; the departed guests' 'distance was still there' and 'had to have come into the minds of my mother and father'. Backing into the hall, 'alone', he feels 'that centered power began to come over me' and begins to think about 'runing away', afraid that he could actually do it - the book's recurrent solitary-power motif igniting in childhood.