Page 125 - Demo

%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOKWhat They Did to the Kid 113We cut down the embankment through the undergrowth toward Ski%u2019s clearing.%u201cI mean,%u201d Mike said, %u201cyou know the lake%u2019s piss-poor.%u201d%u201cQuite the contrary,%u201d Lock said. %u201cBoys piss in it all the time. Even Ryan%u2019s peed in it.%u201dMike stripped off a low branch. He flailed away at the brush ahead. We stopped.Suddenly.We stared at each other, uh, in one of those moments when truth surfaces.%u201cI wanted to get along in the seminary,%u201d Mike said to Lock. %u201cNot to get in trouble.%u201d It was the first time Mike mentioned our talk of the past summer. %u201cRy said to come back and talk to some priest. I wanted to talk to Gunn, I guess, but I take one look at him and know what he%u2019ll say and do.%u201d He whipped at a small buckeye tree. %u201cThe rest of the faculty%u2019s worse. Wind them up, they say Mass and disappear for the day.%u201d%u201cUnless they come to inspect your legs,%u201d I said.%u201cOr to teach,%u201d Mike said, %u201cwhich is worse.%u201d%u201cCongenital idiocy,%u201d Lock said. %u201cMisericordia%u2019s holy reputation hides a history of intellectual incest. Take one student. Train him for twelve years to Misery%u2019s way of thinking. Pack him off somewhere conservative for a bit of advanced theological study. Recall him before he%u2019s finished, so he can teach for free room and board. Promise him if he%u2019s tractable he might someday get his doctorate in something not too worldly. Finally mince around so long both he and you forget the promise. Result: perfect blandness.%u201d%u201cThe intellectual bloodline gets tired,%u201d Mike said.%u201cIt%u2019s Appalachian when it%u2019s not Machiavellian,%u201d I said, leading the way toward the clearing. %u201cThat%u2019s no bench,%u201d I said. %u201cIt%u2019s a couch. Hank hauled it down here...%u201d%u201c...on his back...,%u201d Lock said.%u201c...from Monsignor Linotti%u2019s suite. I think old Linotti died on it.%u201d%u201cFather Dryden,%u201d Lock said.%u201cFather Dryden,%u201d Mike said.%u201cFather Dryden,%u201d I said, %u201cthrew that cruddy couch out last week when he started remodeling Old Linotti%u2019s place.%u201d When Monsignor Linotti had died suddenly, alone, in his ascetic rooms, full of Greek classics, all Gunn had said was, %u201cWhen you grow up and can%u2019t pee like a horse, see a doctor.%u201dSix weeks earlier, the Reverend Christopher Dryden had returned to Misericordia, his alma mater, to teach. He quickly picked up a following.