The Gathering by William X. Kienzle

Author:William X. Kienzle [Kienzle, William X.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime, Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
ISBN: 9780740722295
Google: dQjeZhFim48C
Amazon: 0345457943
Publisher: Fawcett
Published: 2002-02-28T23:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

MEANWHILE, BACK AT HOLY REDEEMER PARISH, the integrated high school students had long since gotten used to each other.

At first, there had been feelings of awkwardness and self-consciousness. Boys felt uncomfortable that, in general, girls knew answers much more frequently and speedily.

In time, competition gave way to an acknowledgment that it wasn’t so much a case of gender as it was that some—be they girls or boys—were better students, were naturally gifted, and/or worked harder.

Mixing boys and girls in classes throughout the school still triggered differences of opinion. Some thought it was a healthy sort of phemomenon that would, in time, lead more gradually into the marital state. Which would be the destiny of almost all these young men and women.

Others agreed with one educator who warned that this physical proximity would lead to “the premature and unhealthy pursuit of girls.”

Even though Rose—and Alice—no longer attended Redeemer, both girls continued to attend school programs, parties, and other social events.

According to those who dabbled in such ratings, Rose was among the prettiest girls in both Immaculata and Redeemer. She was also among the most aloof.

Making out with Rose would have been a dream come true for those who competed in that sort of thing. As yet, no one had even tried to bluff such achievement, although Rose was the object of many a pubescent male fantasy.

Eric Jorgenson, captain of the varsity basketball team, decided to give it a try. He was not averse to having Rose’s scalp on his trophy wall. This in the face of dire warnings, from priests, and especially nuns, that premarital sex was sinful, harmful, and not all that much fun. It did not escape the attention of some students that these admonitions came from chaste celibates who really never should have had such knowledge.

Almost every school—in some instances, almost every classroom—had a boy who bore the distinction of being a filth fiend. This was true not only in public schools but even—gasp—in parochial schools.

In the parochial setting, the role of filth fiend was outstanding mostly because few could qualify. The opposition—those priests and nuns, not to mention Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen, and of course the Pope—had all the howitzers.

It helped that Eric was a jock. Not only was he captain of the basketball varsity; he was oustanding in football and baseball. The advantage of being, arguably, the top jock in school was that he was awfully good at physical activity. And his approach to romance was nothing less than physical.

Eric the Vike (for Viking) Jorgenson did not fish for perch. Girls with round heels were not worth his time and trouble, not to mention his reputation. So, one fine day, when the boys were feeling jocular in the locker room, the gauntlet was thrown. Would Eric the Vike accept the challenge?

Of course.

Eric was not a moron. Nor was he, like Streetcar’s Stanley Kowalski, more brutish than human. Although the term “delayed gratification” had not yet raised its sociological head, Eric was, all unknowingly, a proponent in that he was not unable to contain himself if the eventual reward was worth the wait.

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