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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOKWhat They Did to the Kid 101part of the picture. In July she told me, after we%u2019d parked at the Point a few times, she thought she was pregnant.%u201d%u201cFub!%u201d%u201cI never went all the way with her. She admitted it was someone else%u2019s. Ryan, I prayed that night for her like I%u2019ve never prayed for anyone before. She went to the doctor and he said her tubes were clogged.%u201dWhat had to be the last barrage of rockets and flares popped and exploded over the rooftops.I was trying to be matter-of-fact. But I wanted to laugh. I had to control myself. After Ordination, I could not laugh in the Confessional at the comedy of it all, because sin could send sinners to burn forever in hell. No sense of humor could change that.During Mike%u2019s Confession, I had been afraid he%u2019d seduce me to sin by example, by teaching me a tempting thing or two. But %u201ctubes%u201d? I vowed that after Ordination, hearing Confession for real, I%u2019d not allow so many details.%u201cThe doctor gave her some treatment and that was that. I don%u2019t know if she was never pregnant or if it was my prayers. At any rate, this mess adds to my terrible certainty that I don%u2019t belong in the priesthood. Doc and Julia have got me nearly to the edge. They want me to go back to Misery and talk to Karg and Gunn and maybe Polistina. So I%u2019ll know my own mind%u2014which I%u2019m nearly out of.%u201d%u201cMike, what can I say? In a million years, I wouldn%u2019t know anybody%u2019s mind. Even my own. I can%u2019t push you either way. Why not at least finish your last year of college at Misery?%u201d I couldn%u2019t lose him and Dick Dempsey the same September. %u201cAt least try it.%u201d%u201cI%u2019ve tried it for seven years, Ryan. For seven years, we%u2019ve been best friends, and you know nothing about me.%u201d%u201cYou don%u2019t know your own mind. Go back with me to Misery and look at your vocation in the context of the seminary, where vocation is real and has objective value, and is not a joke to guys like Rip and Kenny. That%u2019s all I ask. Come back in September.%u201d%u201cWhat time are you scheduling the miracle?%u201d he asked.%u201cMike, don%u2019t,%u201d I said. %u201cYou can always be an undecided plumber or an undecided salesman.%u201d%u201cBut not an undecided priest.%u201d%u201cNot an undecided priest.%u201dHuge blooms of raining color burst in the night air.%u201cThanks,%u201d he said. %u201cI mean it, Ry. Thanks.%u201d%u201cThe evening ends?%u201d I asked.