joe woke up. it took him a few seconds to remember where he was.
he was on the couch in johnny’s and mary’s apartment, and not back home in the barracks room he had shared with five of his brothers.
joe could see the sun shining through the little window in the breakfast nook where johnny and mary were sipping coffee in paper cups and muttering to each other.
mary noticed that joe was awake and said good morning to him. johnny just nodded in joe’s direction.
“good morning,” joe answered.
“want some breakfast?” mary asked.
“yes, i would, thank you.”
mary pointed to a white paper bag on a counter behind her. “help yourself.”
joe picked up the bag and saw it had a mcdonalds logo in it. he looked inside and it contained a couple of egg mcmuffins.
“can i have them both?” joe asked hesitantly.
“i see you are a growing boy with a big appetite,” mary answered. “yeah, you can have both of them. and there is coffee over there if want some.”
“thank you.” joe poured some thick black coffee from the pot on the counter into a paper cup and sat down with it and the bag of egg mcmuffins.
although he had eaten at mcdonalds on special occasions, joe was used to getting up in the morning and having big walloping helpings of powdered eggs and quaker oats - washed down with yoo-hoo chocolate drink - before going out and tending to his pigs.
right now, he missed the pigs but did not say so to johnny and mary.
he wondered what this new day held in store for him.
joe felt mary’s eyes on him. johnny looked asleep in his chair.
“um -“ joe began, “did you say something last night about starting a new religion?”
“we are going to put that on hold,” johnny answered immediately.
“yes,” mary added. “we decided to do something different, at least for now. instead of starting a new religion, we are going to rob a bank.”
“oh.” joe did not know what else to say.
“would you care to join us?” johnny asked.
“well - i don’t know,” said joe. “it is not something i ever thought of before.”
“last nght you had never thought of starting a new religion before, but you were willing to go along with that,” mary pointed out.
“yes, but - aren’t they two kind of different things?’ joe asked.
“the same quality of forthright innocence you have which would have been helpful in starting a religion can also be put to good use in robbing a bank,” said johnny.
joe did not know what to say to that either.
“banks are evil,” said mary. “in case that is what you are worrying about.”
“yes, i know,” said joe.
“and besides,” said johnny, “we might rob a casino instead of a bank, and they are even more evil.”
joe took a bite of one of the egg mcmuffins.
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