The day after the day after Halloween wasn't a school holiday. It was a day when we had what we thought of as a serious job to do. The nuns explained to us every year that each time we went into the church on November 2 and said certain prayers, we would be able to give the soul for which we prayed a free pass out of Purgatory. We had to leave the church after each round of prayers and re-enter in order to free another soul. Even though we didn't know which souls we were freeing, I can remember thinking this was a good way to win a friend for eternity who would then pray my soul out of Purgatory. We spent our entire recess zipping in and out of the church earning those free passes.
I did this drawing (with its purgatorial caput mortuum background) from memory. Every time I go to the gym I see the bank of treadmill walkers and joggers and it makes me think of souls in Purgatory doing their penances until their magic numbers (or a lucky free pass) come up.
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