The Loss of Heaven

Anthony Carino lives in fear. A good boy, raised in a strict, Catholic family and schooled by nuns in 1961 on an island in New York, he is haunted by nightmares. In his mind he has committed a most mortal of sins -- he touched the Eucharistic Host at his first holy communion, and now fears God’s wrath against him and his family... and possibly worse, the loss of heaven. All around him things are going wrong: his father has fallen off a ladder, his brother is tormented by a wicked nun, his sixteen year-old sister is pregnant and banished from home, and spreading communism and the prospects of war haunt him. And when his best friend, Paul Jordan, is hit by a truck and killed, Anthony can only assume that this tragedy, as well, was on him. Jimmy Wesley, a man-child of thirty, lives with his mother Emma. When just a boy, during a little league baseball game, Jimmy was hit by a line drive, fell into a coma and will live his life out with the body of a man and the mind of a child. Anthony reminds Jimmy of his best friend from childhood and befriends him when the Catholic school bully, Johnny Belden, who has already deigned Anthony his private punching bag, tries to steal Jimmy’s “very special” transistor radio. Anthony tries to come to Jimmy’s rescue, but fails when his fear of Johnny and confrontation thwarts him. When Johnny stalks Anthony the night of the church’s fundraising bazaar, Anthony’s fear rises to its zenith, and he seeks refuge in the old church, where he lights fifty prayer candles before dozing off in a pew. When Anthony wakens, he’s being carried in Jimmy’s arms through the church, now consumed in flames. Jimmy saves Anthony... but Anthony remembers the baseball card collection he left back inside the church, the cards given to him by Paul’s mother. To keep Anthony from going back inside, Jimmy dashes into the fire, retrieves the cards, but is knocked unconscious by a falling crossbeam. Anthony, now, who sees all of this as more of God’s wrath against him and those around him, must finally confront his fear to save Jimmy. In an act of true heroism, Anthony re-enters the conflagration, tries with every bit of strength to drag Jimmy to safety, until he finally blacks out... the final heroics left to the firemen. While Anthony recuperates in the hospital, he sneaks out of bed and visits Jimmy’s room. Jimmy has not regained consciousness and doctors are not sure that he ever will. Anthony sits by the bedside of this giant friend and switches on the red transistor radio that was as much a part of Jimmy as his damaged brain. The voice of Mel Allen greets Yankee fans over the airwaves. Jimmy responds. He wakens and is his old self...not a perfect Jimmy, rather the same old Jimmy. There’s only one hitch: after asking what caused his patient to come to, the doctor reminds Anthony that baseball season is still a week away. Renewed by his confession to the kind Father Lumin and assured that he has not lost heaven, Anthony must now tackle one last nemesis, the bully Johnny Belden, who has stolen a special “Whitey Ford” card, autographed by the Chairman of the Board himself. In a confrontation with Johnny, in front of God and classmates, Anthony scores both a clean knockout, as well as a clean slate.