The Johnnies hadn’t seen Sally. They went right on arguing until the one who had played truant from school said, ‘Okay, you go and ask Grandpa and Grandma what their name is.’
   ‘Okay, I — no. I don’t want to go home right now. You go.’
   ‘Then give me the cloth thing and I will.’
   The one who had been wearing it that afternoon took off the over-sized sarong* and handed it to the other; who then tried in vain to secure it around his waist.
   ‘How do you tie this anyway?’
   ‘I don’t know. I hate the thing! It fell down three times and Miss Grissel had to do it up for me.’
   ‘That’s Miss Greschen you stupid!’
   He then grasped a handful of the loose cloth at the front and stomped angrily towards home, holding it all the way.

He walked through the door and ran head-on into a barrage of words and questions about the spectacle he made of himself at school that afternoon. Being tested at home on his knowledge of every one’s names, and his memory found to be perfectly normal, it was decided that he had been a very bad boy and had played the fool at school that day.
   So the other Johnny waited in vain behind the out-house for his turn at the supper, because the other had been sent to bed without it.
   Now, the other Johnny had reason to be peeved.

‘Why did you go and get me in trouble in school yesterday?’ Johnny demanded the following morning, as he went to meet Johnny at the hideout.
   ‘I didn’t do anything! I can’t help it if Miss Grissel decides to call herself Miss Greschen and call her sister that drowned Miss Grissel.’
   ‘But she isn’t Miss Grissel. She’s Miss Greschen.’
   ‘She’s always been Miss Grissel as long as I knew her. And Grandpa’s always been Timothy and Grandma’s always been Julia.’
   ‘But you just got here not even a week ago! How would you know?’
   ‘But I only went out with Papa on the boat. Before that everyone called themselves by their regular name! And then, there was only one of me!’
   ‘Last week when I met you, you just came back with Papa?’
   ‘Yeah! Didn’t you see the boat leave?’
   ‘Yeah! I did! But I came back with Papa last month — not last week — and-and I was going to go with him again.’
   Now the Johnnies tone of voice was changed from anger to that of wonder.
   ‘But when I went with Papa last week, he said he already took me, but he didn’t.’
   ‘...’cause it was me he took.’
   ‘Yeah! He showed me everything like he’d showed it to me already and got all upset ‘cause I forgot it all after he said he showed it to me the first time — but for me that was the first time.’
   ‘Maybe there’s been two of us all along!’
   ‘Yeah! And we’ve been pulling a prank on Papa all along without even us knowing it! He’s got us mixed up!’
   ‘He’s always getting mixed up like that. Sometimes he calls Miss Greschen Miss Grissel, and Bertram Thurston and all that’
   ‘And sometimes he calls Miss Grissel Miss Greschen’
   ‘Maybe you do know all the ones that died!’
   ‘How could I do that?’
   ‘They all went to heaven. Are you from heaven?’
   ‘I don’t think so. No, I think this must be heaven, and just now, with Papa on the boat, we drowned, and now I’m in heaven.’
   ‘But then, where’s Papa?’
   ‘Maybe he didn’t go to heaven because he’s a Portuguese sailor and Uncle Todd says Portuguese sailors know a horse in every port?’
   ‘And if it’s heaven, how was I born here?’
   ‘Maybe dead people, when they go to heaven, they have babies there.’
   At breakfast, Johnny asked Grandpa, ‘Is this heaven?’
   ‘To be sure, my boy, this island is every bit a paradise.’
   ‘When people die and go to heaven, can they have babies?’
   ‘No, they become like the angels. They don’t marry or have babies.’
   ‘Then how could I be born, if this is heaven, and people can’t have babies in heaven?’
   Now, the grown-ups were looking at one another, thinking that the boy’s mind was indeed in need of some attention. Perhaps the same ailment that was affecting little Sally?
   After the trip to the out-house, Johnny asked Grandpa, ‘Is your name Thomas or Timothy?’
   ‘My dear child! You really don’t know if you’re in heaven or on earth! I’m Thomas, my boy. You and I are on earth. Your great uncle Timothy is the one who went to heaven.’
   Johnny went off to school more bewildered than ever. He did remember to call everyone by their local names and not by that of the supposed deceased, so, apart from a few problems of remembering from morning to afternoon, and keeping the sarong from coming undone, the day went smoothly.

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