159. Brother Student Lance

“I met Roger Kumminski today,” I said to Harpo when he and Cat returned from the Chinese restaurant with take out lunch.

“Don’t know him, do I?” said Harpo.

“He’s the fireman who tried to save Agnes in the fire,” I said.  “His sister was married to Lance before she died.  You taught Lance how to fish.”

“Yes, I did,” said Harpo, looking uncomfortable.

“How did you come to meet Lance,” I asked.

“He lived at the monastery,” said Harpo.  “He’s the only boy from the school we ran who stayed around Saugerties when the State Ed Department shut us down.”

“Harpo, are you shitting me?”  I almost shouted.

“Language, my dear abbot, is a mirror to the soul,”  Harpo said.

“How can it be that I’ve been dealing with Lance for the past few  years and you never admitted you knew him.  And which other Brothers knew him from his school days here?”

“No one,” said Harpo.  “They’re all dead.  Took our secret to their graves.”

“What secret?”  I asked.

“That when the State closed down our school, we hid the boys and didn’t send them home.”

“What?”  I almost shrieked.

“They were all 16 and 17 years old at the time.  We had five boys then and we worried greatly about their welfare if they returned to their … sick families.  Maybe we couldn’t have students, but who says we can’t have private guests?  Ask Visiting Scholar Julio.”

“I’m sure the state would object to that logic,” I said.

“We thought so, too, so we didn’t tell them,” Harpo said.

“What did their families think?”  I asked.

“All the parents eventually opened their mail from the state to find the boys had been liberated, but only two families bothered to seek them out here,” he said.  “When we lied and said we didn’t know where they were,  neither family pursued it, evidently believing the boys had struck out on their own.”

“This is all hard to believe,” I said.

“Well, as time went on, the boys did strike out on their own.  Most joined the armed forces.  Lance joined the Army, got scholarships, became an officer and did quite well.  Did you know that Lance is a wealthy financier?” asked Harpo.

“No,” I said.  “Why doesn’t he just give us a hundred thousand dollars a year and take care of us?” I said, half seriously.

“He’s offered,” said Harpo, “but I have explained to him the meaning of our vow of poverty.  We wait upon no man.  We wait upon the Lord, who provides what we need, Jesse.  He’s never failed us.”

He Will Provide - Georgia Massed Choir