Page 82
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
A black-and-white nun sends Michael to the rectory for causing trouble, and the summons fills him with excitement rather than fear as he runs up into Papa Joe's dining room and waits in posture like a soldier before inspection.
The nun's insistence on truth only heightens the thrill, because being called by Papa Joe feels like elevation rather than punishment. Authority becomes magnetic here, and Michael meets it by stiffening himself into readiness.
Still in Papa Joe's head, the football musing ('Blue and Gray. Sky and almost sky ... This year everyone plays') resolves into his first written 'notation of the day' - 'Ask Michael Frost if he thinks he is the toughest kid in the school. Or not.' The narration then returns to Michael's first person and the summons is relayed by 'a black and white nun' whose 'Authority was really the thing that made sure your eyes went no further', her warning to 'tell him the truth' delivered as if 'yelling, no lies, no lies, no lies'. The boy meets the call not with dread but 'A strange excitement', running 'up the hill against the crisp wind' and sitting himself 'up strong with shoulders back and eyes ahead' as the priest's footsteps descend.