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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOKWhat They Did to the Kid 145%u201cDrop dead,%u201d Hank said. He fisted his closed thumb and forefinger up against his belly and belched.Everyone laughed, ha ha.After supper, Lock cornered me. %u201cTomorrow, Rector Karg is bringing in the Bishop himself. Mike and I both have to sign depositions to the Holy Office in Rome. Keep pretending you know nothing.%u201d%u201cI really don%u2019t know anything.%u201d I feared our very innocence might be used against us. Like The Crucible. Awful to be accused of something you did. Worse to be named something you weren%u2019t.%u201cWe%u2019re under oath,%u201d Lock said.%u201cThey%u2019re acting fast,%u201d Mike said.%u201cFestina lente,%u201d I quoted the Latin maxim. %u201cMake haste slowly. That%u2019s what they will do.%u201d %u201cChips will fall where they may.%u201d Lock looked worried. %u201cHeads will roll.%u201dThe little sanctuary of our lives ignited with anxiety, tension, and excitement. The drum roll of changes coming from Rome was interrupted by the whispered scandal we could not name. Priests fighting over Vatican II suddenly closed ranks. Purity was stronger than politics. Purity was ancient, legendary, basic. We had no words to discuss what could not exist. I knew purity was somehow at the heart of the Dolce Vita matter with Father Dryden, but how he had tempted Mike in his room threw my imagination akimbo. All the priests and all the boys once again knew something I didn%u2019t know, and I was too afraid of losing my purity to ask.Mike had dropped a rock onto the still, perfect, mirrored surface of the deep waters that were Misery. The rock splashed and sank hard. Concentric rings rolled out across Misery%u2019s identity. For three breathless days, I saw priests skulking through shadows in the halls, whispering, and disappearing into rooms where we boys were not allowed. From our watchful vantage point, I was actually happy that the usual dissension among the faculty decreased as the priests prepared a united front for the coming investigation into what Lock called %u201cThe Secret Life of Misericordia Seminary.%u201d Yet, in reality, the secrecy was so tightly managed that even Hank and his gang of vigilante altar boys failed to notice how Mike and Lock appeared and disappeared and appeared again.%u201cI can keep,%u201d I said, %u201cthe seal of the Confessional.%u201d%u201cWe can%u2019t tell you,%u201d Mike said.%u201cIf the Bishop knows you know,%u201d Lock said, %u201cyou%u2019ll get shipped.%u201d%u201cSo you don%u2019t know anything, do you!%u201d Mike laughed.%u201cI know nothing about what you%u2019re talking about.%u201d