Page 96 - What They Did to the Kid

84 Jack Fritscher

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 dur-
ing the “Grace after Meals” with the blot of mustard from my fork.

April 15, 1957

Even 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’s 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.
“Gunn is really down on the class.” Lock felt dejected. “Karg
backs him up.”
“Hank caused it,” I said.
“But it seems more than that,” Lock said. “I thought we had
Gunn to where he’d listen to us, or actually hear something about
what’s happening to us.”
“That was earlier, much earlier, this year,” I said. “It’s probably
the same hope every senior class begins with, to win the disciplinar-
ian’s heart.”
“Institutions don’t have hearts,” Lock said. “None of the faculty
wants our opinions. But I thought we could change Gunn’s per-
sonal hard-line attitude and maybe achieve an actual ‘first,’ a high-
school graduation this year. That’s what I’ve been working towards.
A graduation ceremony could symbolize our intellectual progress
toward the priesthood. But no! Last night, Father Gunn told me in
no uncertain terms there will be no high-school graduation this year,

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