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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOKWhat They Did to the Kid 147the stage, because Tank%u2019s brother PeterPeterPeter was singing. The last of the student audience was filing in.We heard Ski ask Hank, %u201cWhere%u2019s Dryden? He%u2019s late.%u201d%u201cHe%u2019s either feeling better or he%u2019s dead,%u201d Hank said deliberately. %u201cChris never misses any student function.%u201d%u201cAin%u2019t that the truth!%u201d Mike whispered. %u201cFunction! Function! Who%u2019s got my function?%u201d%u201cShut up,%u201d Lock said.I turned around in my seat and waved my program in Hank%u2019s face. %u201cYour favorite priest is scheduled right here to play piano in the second act.%u201d I pointed to Christopher Dryden%u2019s name on the program I had mimeographed only the day before. No priests had dared break their secrecy by telling me to remove his name. I had received the typed original before the unspoken scandal broke. No priest said not to print the bill, and I couldn%u2019t very well suggest editing out Dryden%u2019s appearance without indicating I knew he was being ostracized. Or disciplined. Or worse.%u201cChris will play as promised,%u201d Hank said. %u201cPlague wouldn%u2019t stop him. Peter said Chris knows the show must go on.%u201dI looked at him: %u201cWhy must the show go on?%u201d I repeated the sentence five times with five different inflections.%u201cShut up,%u201d Hank said.%u201cHank%u2019s suspicions are dangerous,%u201d Lock whispered to me. %u201cHe knows we know something.%u201d%u201cIf Chris doesn%u2019t show,%u201d Hank said, %u201cI%u2019ll bet ten to one he%u2019s finally in Dutch with the powers that be.%u201d%u201cThe powers that be!%u201d Mike repeated.%u201cOh no!%u201d Lock said, %u201cNot the powers that be!%u201dThe auditorium lights dimmed.Hank hit me on the back of the head.I slapped him across the face with my program.He popped his gum and belched.%u201cStop it,%u201d Lock said.%u201cChris is forbidden to eat with the other priests,%u201d Hank said to Ski.The Misery pit orchestra of six boys hit the overture with bass and drums and piano and a blat of trumpet. The stage lit up on PeterPeterPeter, dressed like the Music Man, pattering out %u201cTrouble. Right here in River City.%u201d Oh yeah. %u201cWhat?%u201d Ski could not hear.%u201cForbidden to eat...aw, wait till intermission,%u201d Hank said. %u201cWatch my brother.%u201d