83. Sealed Away

Agnes is treating the Brothers as holy innocents, believing them incapable of figuring out a life for themselves after our time on the mountain comes to an end. Although he doesn’t plan to shake each brother’s hand and then murder him, the abbot has been acting more like a prison warden and seems to have made little headway in his efforts to firm up plans to provide for us after we are evicted. He refuses to discuss plans with the group or encourage their input.

“The Brothers have been sealed away here for years, Jesse,” he said. “They wouldn’t know how to make a very good living to support themselves.”

“Eventually they will have to be told,” I said. “You can’t wait till the last moment and hand them the keys to a few apartments and tell them to show up Monday morning at the car wash wearing their boots."

This all reminds me of the old movies where the prisoner was pushed out the back door of the prison wearing a cheap suit with a twenty dollar bill in the pocket.

Terd is still over in Red Hook.  When I call him he doesn’t say much about his plans.   Agnes has allowed me to visit him this week. I miss him and want to continue our conversation, but hopefully we can do so this time with less choler.

Jim Croce - Working At The Car Wash Blues