Regan’s Reasons

Regan was the kind of girl who would make eyes at the altar boys during her own mother’s funeral. I know because I’m the one who kicked her when I saw it happening and gave her a look; the kind of look a mother would give except in this case she was the one in the casket.

Why Regan had to insist on flirting with the boys now was beyond me. She should just stick with at school or during mass. But not now. When God AND her mother were watching from heaven. I silently asked God not to blame this on poor, dead Mrs. Burke. Regan was thirteen years old now and should take responsibility for her own trespasses.

They weren’t even anything special, really. They lit the incense and handed it to Father Walsh. Any idiot could do that. They sat together at lunch and drew that stupid emblem on every surface they came in contact with which I’m pretty sure is a sin anyway. How could she possibly even be interested in somebody who was a founding member of “Knights of the Altar” ?

The thing is, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t. Regan just liked to see them snuff out match after match trying to light the incense but were too nervous now knowing her steel-gray eyes were on them. She got joy over watching them fumble with the pages of their hymnals; making them sweat something sinful in their heavy robes. Regan loved that they looked like fools doing their best to remedy her own mother’s poor soul.

Regan was ruining her own mother’s funeral on purpose. She had always hated her. And truthfully, she had her reasons. But ever since Mrs. Burke accidentally inhaled her own car’s exhaust that night in August, Regan’s reasons seemed to grow.