Page 156 - Demo

%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK144 Jack FritscherThe next morning, Lock entered Rector Karg%u2019s office. From down the corridor, Mike and I spied Rector Karg rise quickly and close his ever-open door. Within fifteen minutes, Lock came out for Mike. %u201cYou have to go. You have to tell.%u201d%u201cWhy did we have to tell at all?%u201d Mike said. He started running down the hall.%u201cWhy does anyone confess?%u201d I asked. Lock and I ran with him. Our cassocks whooshed around our legs.%u201cIn a school,%u201d Lock said, %u201cwhere five hundred boys each go to Confession twice a week, you better confess to cover yourself.%u201d%u201cLock%u2019s right,%u201d I said. We ran around a corner. %u201cThat%u2019s how Porky Puhl was caught.%u201d%u201cConfession is perfect, isn%u2019t it,%u201d Mike said, %u201cfor controlling a bunch of boys.%u201d%u201cTattletales,%u201d I said. We picked up speed running for a stairwell.%u201cDryden was right about one thing, at least,%u201d Mike said. %u201cCommunists and Catholics both rely on informants.%u201d%u201cBut why do we have to tell?%u201d Mike said.%u201cBecause,%u201d Lock said, %u201cwe%u2019re good Catholic boys.%u201d%u201cIt%u2019ll be the Inquisition all over again,%u201d I said.We stampeded up the stairs as if we were somehow going to escape.Mike disappeared into Karg%u2019s office. Doors banged shut. Mice scurried into holes. Sanctuary candles flickered. Priests whisked down hallways and disappeared. Lock and I sat through the day%u2019s classes fearful that parts of the precious world of Misery were about to blow. Around our ears. After eight years of being good. A month before college graduation.%u201cI wonder,%u201d Lock said, %u201chow many seminarians took, uh, interpretive dance lessons from Dryden?%u201dBy supper Mike had returned. He looked terrible at table, but he hadn%u2019t been shipped, at least before supper. Maybe he could make it to our graduation.Hank the Tank nosed around Mike%u2019s disappearance. %u201cWhere were you all day? You missed your classes.%u201d%u201cNone of your beeswax where he was,%u201d I said.%u201cMike had an appointment with the doctor in town,%u201d Lock said.%u201cHe has polio,%u201d I said.%u201cSimple as that?%u201d Hank made his bubble gum smack.%u201cSimple enough for you,%u201d Lock said.