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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK38 Jack Fritscher%u201cNo. I don%u2019t want to. It%u2019s bad%u2014that%u2019s enough to know.%u201dLock made a clucking sound. %u201cYou are very much a simp, Ry. You%u2019re always talking about words and how important they are to you. Yet you stand nearly falling out of the window because of a word.%u201d%u201cWords are powerful. I%u2019ve told you I think there%u2019s a word somewhere that can save us all. Jesus was the Word made flesh. To find His secret we have to find the new word for our time.%u201d%u201cRy, get real. This is a word on the blackboard.%u201d%u201cI%u2019ve never said it.%u201d%u201cIt%u2019s four letters.%u201d%u201cI don%u2019t need to spell it. I%u2019m not going to write it.%u201d%u201cCrimanetly, Ry, turn around.%u201dI turned halfway, facing him and all his blond Germanic confidence. %u201cI can see you, but I won%u2019t turn any further till you erase the board.%u201d%u201cRy, crimanetly. Understand things, will you? The four letters in that word are based on old English law. So many people were charged with this particular crime that the bored police scribe abbreviated it: F period, U period...%u201d%u201cI know how it%u2019s spelled!%u201d I said.%u201cThe four letters simply abbreviate %u2018For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.%u2019%u201d%u201cDon%u2019t tell me what that means.%u201d%u201cRead the Bible, for cripesakes.%u201d%u201cYes. Yes, Your Grammarship.%u201d%u201cAct your age,%u201d Lock said.%u201cYou%u2019re disgusted. With me you%u2019re disgusted,%u201d I said amazed. %u201cYou%u2019re disgusted with me and not with Porky Puhl.%u201dLock picked up the wet cloth and began wiping off the four wide scrawls of chalk. %u201cI%u2019m not disgusted,%u201d he said.%u201cYou are. You are too,%u201d I said. %u201cYou%u2019re so smug. You think you%u2019re so mature and you understand things just because your father died and you can be the head of your family.%u201dLock was totally silent. He finished his last swipe and his silence was awful. Finally he turned to me and said simply, %u201cRy?%u201d%u201cWhat?%u201d%u201cFuck is a word.%u201d He threw the wet cloth back into the wastepaper basket. %u201cFuck is the word for you. Fuck you!%u201d He went out to the drinking fountain in the hall.I looked up at the crucifix hanging over the blackboard, begging Jesus would not convict me of taking part in Charles Puhl%u2019s impurity. Then I left the classroom, walked past Lock Roehm, who until that moment had