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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK240 Jack Fritscher%u201cSay %u2018good-night,%u2019 kid,%u201d he said.April 14,1964Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote, the droghte of March hath perced to the rote, when April showers have pierced to the roots the drought of March,many mornings I woke wet, tented like the human tripod. Don%u2019t touch it. To head to the bathroom and kitchen, I sidestepped into the old Misery dormitory trick and pulled on my Jockey shorts under the covers, flipped the blankets, and stepped into my pants.Even in April, 120 days out of the slavery of Misery, I could not believe I had bought my way upriver. Gunn and Karg warned us regularly about ex-seminarians. %u201cThey go off the deep end, lose their faith, stop going to the sacraments. The ruin of the best is the worst.%u201d Touch it. I woke each day hoping to be swept away, but life was as ordinary as Louisa%u2019s cupboards stocked with bread and canned goods.Misery was a past I had to live with, like a girl who got pregnant and gave the kid up for adoption. I remained a jerk. Touch it. Don%u2019t touch it. Which is sweeter? You can take the boy out of Misery, but you can%u2019t take Misery out of the boy. Jacob wrestled with a goddam angel. I fought the good fight. I wrestled with priests to beat those priests and priestlings at their own game. What had I done? I denied my past and destroyed my future.My Uncle Les said, %u201cGod ordered Adam and Eve out of the Garden. You walked out on your own.%u201dI had moved from Gregorian chant into the polkas of Rogers Park and the hootenannies of Old Town and the jazz clubs of Rush Street on the Near North Side. I stared at the lights shining from the windows of the Playboy mansion on the Gold Coast and watched the crowds coming and going at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go, not yet prepared to walk through any doors. %u2018This is my philosophy: If you aren%u2019t adjusted where you are,%u201d I told the Buncheks, %u201cthen go where the adjustment is.%u201d%u201cSo you studied philosophy,%u201d Louisa said, %u201cin a fortune cookie factory.%u201d%u201cI want to go where I want to go and do what I want to do.%u201d%u201cSuit yourself,%u201d Louisa said. %u201cI%u2019m staying put.%u201d%u201cYou need to get around a little more,%u201d Joe said.April descended on Chicago. My first spring. I was free and ready to defrost. Abandoned blankets lay in the streets along the curbs where drivers stuck in the blizzard had thrown them under their spinning tires