He has not seen Joey at Church for months. Even when he was coming, it wasn’t often. Usually he came with his mom. The young man thought he had seen Joey’s father maybe twice.
So it surprises him when they are riding home from baseball and his mother says, “Dad won’t be home till late tonight.”
“Why? Where is he?”
“He had to go visit Sister C.”
“Oh. Why?”
“Jose committed suicide this week.”
“What does that mean?”
“He killed himself.”
“What did he do?”
“Shot himself in the head in their bathroom.”
“That’s terrible. Why did he do that?”
“I don’t know. I think he and Maria were having problems, but I don’t know much about it.”
He will see Joey at Church maybe two more times during his preteen and teen years in Corpus Christi. When he does, he talks to him and wants him to feel ok because it’s terrible that his dad is gone.
The Living and the Dead, by Gordon Laws 