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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK154 Jack Fritscher%u201cIt can%u2019t all be true,%u201d I said to Hank%u2019s fat face, %u201cbecause if it%u2019s true, it means you were involved. And who%u2019d have sex with you? Isn%u2019t that why you came to Misericordia, because girls ran away.%u201dHank the Tank rumbled toward me. I shoved him. I pushed us apart. He let me push us apart. For the first time.%u201cI%u2019m not involved in anything, Ryan.%u201d%u201cDeny me three times.%u201d%u201cScrew you, Virgin Mary.%u201d Hank the Tank tugged at his shirt. %u201cIt%u2019s true!%u201d He wouldn%u2019t stop. %u201cThe old priests manufactured the story, twisting it the very way they wanted. They already smashed his piano and the Broadway original cast albums.%u201d%u201cBut that stuff%u2019s his!%u201d I said.%u201cNot in their minds.%u201d Hank moved in closer. %u201cDid you know they%u2019re saying Chris had an open affair with one of the most famously flaming ma%u00eetre d%u2019s in Rome?%u201d%u201cWhat%u2019s a %u2018flaming ma%u00eetre d%u2019?%u2019%u201d I said.%u201cYou are impossibly naive,%u201d Hank said, %u201cand maybe even really as innocent as you act, you poor fub duck thing.%u201dMike returned and opened the trunk. He looked me full in the face. %u201cI%u2019ve heard,%u201d he said. %u201cEveryone knows. Roman Holiday turned into La Dolce Vita, with a lot of dolce. Get in the car. I need out of here.%u201d%u201cAnd last night!%u201d Hank oozed up against the white car, practically performing %u201cThe Snake Dance%u201d from The Garden of Eden Ballet. %u201cLast night, nineteen high-school boys were shipped out under cover of darkness.%u201dI reeled with the news. Sunlight hurt my eyes. The cars of parents arriving to pick up their sons roared in my ears. %u201cIt%u2019s true,%u201d Mike said. %u201cNineteen. Gone so fast they couldn%u2019t even take their luggage. Some of these parents arriving today to drive little Johnny home will find little Johnny disappeared last night on a Greyhound bus.%u201d %u201cThis is disgusting.%u201d Lock walked up to the car. %u201cA real witch hunt.%u201d Off to the side a mother of a shipped boy cried out. %u201cWhere%u2019s my son?%u201d A father grasped his chest. %u201cShipped?%u201d An old priest talking to them pointed to their son%u2019s suitcase. %u201cPerhaps another seminary will take him.%u201d Three or four other sets of parents were leaning against their cars in shock and despair. %u201cYou sent him away last night knowing we%u2019d be here today?%u201d One father kept slamming his car door. %u201cWhat kind of people are you?%u201d A mother fainted. %u201cYou%u2019re supposed to care for my son.%u201d A shipped boy%u2019s little sister, no more than eight, started a wailing cry. %u201cWhere%u2019s Bobbieeeeee?%u201d