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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK100 Jack Fritscher%u201cLet me tell you something,%u201d he said. %u201cThe year after the divorce, you remember Julie went to Madison for a rest.%u201d He stubbed out the last of his smoke. %u201cThere was no nervous breakdown. Just some blond Scandinavian guy from one of the tourist lodges. Damn, I%u2019m out of cigarettes. Why don%u2019t you smoke?%u201d He patted all his pockets, then settled back into the creaking wicker chair. %u201cI%u2019m out. Anyway, one night that winter, while you and I were holy little high-school sophomores at Misery, Julie came home all beat up. She%u2019d told this Scandinavian social director she was PG with his kid and he slapped her up all alone outside the cheery lodge, right in the street. Left her in the snow. A great melodrama, but no hero saved her and that spring, late, she had the nine-pound nervous breakdown, and it was adopted. Doc hauled the guy into court, quietly. He was fined or something. That pushed Doc and Julie even farther apart.%u201d%u201cMike, come on. Enough%u2019s enough.%u201d%u201cYou don%u2019t believe it. You think it%u2019s Peyton Place.%u201d%u201cYou say it, Mike. I believe you.%u201d%u201cGod%u2019s truth,%u201d he said.%u201cBut it doesn%u2019t explain you, just them.%u201d%u201cThey%u2019re the easiest part,%u201d he said. %u201cWhat happened to me even Rip and Kenny...like...don%u2019t know. There%u2019s Barbara.%u201dBarbara? Oh, no; but, of course. Why not? Somewhere in all this muck lurked a Barbara. My grade school had been driven crazy by the sudden bloom of sweet little Barbara with the pointy chest the mothers said was prematurely developed. The priests at Misery continually warned us there would always be a Barbara.I felt sorry for girls blamed for boys%u2019 bad thoughts.I felt sorry for boys driven crazy by girls.I didn%u2019t like playing at being Father Confessor. The priests warned us that penitents always try to confess with too much detail. Don%u2019t let them. You%u2019ll only hear things you%u2019ll try not to think about later, or, worse, their sins will become your temptations.Mike was frightening me. He was no longer a safe seminarian. He had a Barbara. He knew what his girl looked like.%u201cYou know,%u201d he said, %u201cwith purity everybody%u2019s got trouble. Alone or with others. Like Barbara. At the beach. When I was a lifeguard.%u201d%u201cYour pastor spoke too late.%u201d%u201cThanks like a bunch.%u201dI wanted to ward him away from me. My vocation was too important.%u201cBarbara%u2019s a good person.%u201d He was focused on confessing. %u201cI think the world of her, though I%u2019ll never quit because of a girl. She%u2019s only a small