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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK72 Jack Fritscher%u201cGott in Himmel, God in heaven! The good sisters try,%u201d he said. %u201cGod knows they try with what time and money Rector Karg gives them. Anyone taking grievance about their valiant efforts certainly lacks the worldly detachment necessary for the priesthood. You should know the real hardship of soldiers at war, of nuns at war. Then you might appreciate what%u2019s given to you.%u201dHe began the Father-Treasurer%u2019s story of the blind German lady, but I hardly heard him, remembering Hank%u2019s bravado the night before. I started to laugh because Hank and his cronies stood shamed by the fable of the little old lady%u2019s quarter. I laughed harder and harder, Gunn up in the lectern waving the plate, unable to see me, because of the five disgraced boys standing all around me.Lock poked me, worsening my laughing jag. %u201cNuns at war!%u201dWhen Gunn announced that the gang of five had to wash every window and every light fixture in the high-school building, even if it took all their free time till June, I dropped my head to the table. Tears rolled down my face. I was on the side of the angels. Maybe Gunn was right about Providence. This was almost a sign of something.Lock poked me again as Gunn stormed down upon us. I regained some composure while he broke up the table, moving into exile, at a disciplinary side table, everybody but me and Lock and Dempsey, who the night before had, sly as a fox, rubbed out his signature during the %u201cGrace after Meals%u201d with the blot of mustard from my fork.April 15, 1957Even Hank the Tank looked a little broken after a month of climbing ladders to wash the high-hung electrical fixtures, especially when the first warm spring weather blew up the river valley to the hill. So long after the offense, the five disciplined boys began to gain a general sympathy. Misery had more than two thousand ornate light fixtures. Lock, as class president, had knocked on Father Gunn%u2019s door to get the stiff sentence commuted. The priest refused out of hand. He cautioned Lock not to abuse his position as president in matters that concerned higher discipline.%u201cGunn is really down on the class.%u201d Lock felt dejected. %u201cKarg backs him up.%u201d%u201cHank caused it,%u201d I said.%u201cBut it seems more than that,%u201d Lock said. %u201cI thought we had Gunn to where he%u2019d listen to us, or actually hear something about what%u2019s happening to us.%u201d