Page 56 - What They Did to the Kid

44 Jack Fritscher

“Stop it. You’re dirty. Dirty!”
“Get thee to a nunnery, Virgin Mary.” He turned and stalked
from the classroom.
Lock Roehm came toward me.
“Erase it,” I begged. “Please, erase it before I have to turn around.”
“Look at it,” Lock said.
“No. It’s a sin. A mortal sin.”
“Look at it,” Lock repeated.
“No. I can’t. In conscience, I can’t. Please erase it.”
“Do you know what it means, Ry?”
“No. I don’t want to. It’s bad—that’s enough to know.”
Lock made a clucking sound. “You are very much a simp, Ry.
You’re always talking about words and how important they are to
you. Yet you stand nearly falling out of the window because of a
word.”
“Words are powerful. I’ve told you I think there’s a word some-
where 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.”
“Ry, get real. This is a word on the blackboard.”
“I’ve never said it.”
“It’s four letters.”
“I don’t need to spell it. I’m not going to write it.”
“Crimanetly, Ry, turn around.”
I turned halfway, facing him and all his blond Germanic con-
fidence. “I can see you, but I won’t turn any further till you erase
the board.”
“Ry, 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 abbre-
viated it: F period, U period...”
“I know how it’s spelled!” I said.
“The four letters simply abbreviate ‘For Unlawful Carnal
Knowledge.’”
“Don’t tell me what that means.”
“Read the Bible, for cripesakes.”
“Yes. Yes, Your Grammarship.”
“Act your age,” Lock said.

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