“There was a kid named Mitchell in our neighborhood and he was always picking on us for being Jewish. My parents would tell us, ‘Just tell him Jesus was Jewish,’ but it never worked. In second grade on Halloween, my brother, sister, and I were trick-or-treating. None of us were really candy eaters, but we wanted a lot of it. We’d each eat three pieces and Mom would throw the rest out. Well, that day we ran into Mitchell and he felt emboldened because there were no parents around. He started bullying us, so we decided to walk away. Well, he didn’t like that. I had one of those plastic pumpkins for candy, and he decided to kick it out of my hand. He ended up breaking my finger. We went over to talk to his parents and they were like, ‘We don’t know where he got that from!’ But it was all bullshit. I guess we could have called the cops, but the parents acted mortified. Supposedly, Mitchell got in trouble. Years later, in college, we ended up at the same party. I didn’t even recognize him. He came over, introduced himself, and told me, ‘I am so sorry. I’ve grown up a lot since then and I was so wrong.’”

📷| Colleen O’Connell Smyth