Page 135 - Demo

%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOKWhat They Did to the Kid 123Dryden had defined the wall opposite the door with ritual masks and spears and textiles brought from his Ordination trip to Indian reservations out west. Several black-and-white photographs, taken years before, featured real Indians standing stoically outside their teepees. On his dark and ornate desk sat a lushly baroque ceramic ink stand from Italy. A single lamp shown down upon it, spotting, I felt, his cocky Roman credentials.Opposite, under a priceless Venetian triptych of Mary, Joseph, and the Child, stood a French spinet he had purchased in Florence. His one uncontrollable passion, he had told the Sunday group, was music. He invariably entertained them with his greatest classical hits each Sunday. He played the piano, his courtiers said, expertly. With music and readings of poetry, he charmed the suckups at his Sunday soirees.This night, two seminarians sat on the piano bench and knocked out the usual four-handed duet of %u201cHeart and Soul.%u201d%u201cPenny for your thoughts.%u201d Mike edged up beside me.%u201cThis all reminds me,%u201d I said, %u201cof a poem by Robert Browning.%u201d%u201cI like Browning,%u201d Mike said, %u201cbut I like Kipling better.%u201d%u201cI don%u2019t know,%u201d I said, %u201cI%u2019ve never kippled.%u201dWe specialized in refurbishing old jokes.%u201cA poem,%u201d I said, %u201cby Browning. %u2018The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed%u2019s Church.%u2019%u201d%u201cRyan, why do you always confuse literature class with life?%u201d%u201cFor the same reason you confuse Bible stories with life.%u201d%u201cApe!%u201d%u201cMonkey!%u201d%u201cBeatnik!%u201d%u201cWhen%u2019s the debate start?%u201d I asked%u201cHalf an hour.%u201dI felt tricked. %u201cYou got me here early.%u201d%u201cTo get a taste of Chris%u2019 style.%u201d%u201cIt%u2019s bourgeois,%u201d I said. %u201cNot worker-priest.%u201d%u201cAlso, he wants us all to mingle first.%u201d%u201cSo,%u201d I said shrugging, %u201cthat%u2019s the curse that goes with the diamond.%u201d%u201cTV or not TV,%u201d Mike said.From Dryden%u2019s corner of the room, the conversation heated up.%u201cBut our battles don%u2019t carry any universal overtones,%u201d someone protested.%u201cAh,%u201d Dryden prolonged the syllable as a sign. The room quieted. %u201cThe causes,%u201d he said, bringing his topic to the fore, %u201cfor the defeat of the