16
11:30 A.M., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2008
NEW YORK CITY
Dr. Jack Stapleton, I presume!” The clear, mellifluous tenor voice came over the receiver like a breath of fresh air. It was somehow familiar to Jack, and his brain desperately scanned though its auditory memory bank.
Jack was silent a moment. Listening more closely he could hear a slight wheeze. Someone was still on the line but deliberately not speaking. Almost half a minute went by before Jack said, “We’re going to be here awhile unless I get a bit more information.”
“It’s one of your oldest and dearest friends.”
The voice was again familiar, but Jack could not quite pin it down. “Since I’ve never had a surplus of friends, this should be an easy task, but it’s not. You have to give me another hint.”
“I was the handsomest, tallest, smartest, most athletic, and most popular of the Three Musketeers!”
“Will wonders never cease,” Jack said, now at ease. “James O’Rourke. Although I can grant you the other less significant qualities, I’m going to contest the tallest.”
James burst out with his familiar high-pitched laugh, which grated on Jack’s nerves like sandpaper on the tips of his fingers, just as it had when they met at Amherst College in the fall of 1973.
“The moment I hear your voice, do you know what I visualize?” James said with another giggle.
“I can’t imagine,” Jack said.
“I see you walking out of Laura Scales House at Smith College, lugging the bust of Laura Scales, with your face as red as mine would have been. It was hilarious.”
“That was because Molly stood me up,” Jack said, quickly defending himself.
“I remember,” James said. “And you did it in broad daylight.”
“I brought it back the next month with great fanfare,” Jack added. “So no harm done.”
“I remember. I was there.”
“And you’re hardly the one to be throwing stones,” Jack said. “I can remember the night you carried out the club chair from Dickinson House at Mount Holyoke College because you were pissed off at... what was her name?”
“Virginia Sorenson. Beautiful, sweet Virginia Sorenson! What a doll!” James said with a hint of nostalgia.
“Have you heard from her since—”
“Since I went into the seminary?”
“Yeah.”
“No, I haven’t. She was sweet but hardly understanding.”
“I can see her point, considering how tight you guys were. Do you regret your choice?”
James cleared his throat. “The difficulty of having to make the choice has been a source of both joy and sadness, which I would prefer to discuss over a glass of wine and a roaring fire. I have a place on a lake in northern New Jersey where I’d love to have you and your wife come some weekend.”
“That might work,” Jack said vaguely. It seemed a surprising invitation after not having heard a whimper from James since they graduated from college in 1977. Of course, it was also Jack’s fault, since he hadn’t tried to contact James, either. Although they’d been good friends in college, their postgraduate interests had been totally divergent. With the last member of the Three Musketeers, it had been different. Jack had been enthralled by Shawn Daughtry’s field of Near Eastern archeology, and they had stayed reasonably in touch until the death of Jack’s first wife and children. After that, Jack didn’t keep in touch with anyone, not even family.
As if sensing Jack’s thoughts, James said, “I have to apologize for not getting in touch with you when you moved here to the city. I heard you were here, working at OCME. I’ve always meant to give you a call to get together and laugh at old times. No one seems to realize when you go to college what a wonderful experience it is. At the time it always seems so hectic, with some giant paper or exam weighing you down. And when someone tries to tell you how special college is while you’re there, all you can say to yourself is, Oh, sure! If this is the best that it gets, I’m in serious trouble!”
It was Jack’s turn to chuckle. “You’re so right. It’s the same with medical school. I can remember my old family doc telling me medical school was going to be the emotional highlight of my professional career. At the time I thought he was crazy, but it turns out he was right.”
There was a short pause in the conversation as the two old college friends silently reminisced. But then James’s attitude and tone abruptly changed as he broke the silence. “I suppose you’d like to know why I have suddenly called you out of the blue.”
“It’s crossed my mind,” Jack admitted, trying to sound casual. James’s voice had become decidedly somber, almost grave.
“It’s simply that I am in desperate need of your help, and I pray that you will be willing to indulge me.”
“You have my attention,” Jack said warily. There had been times when listening to other people’s problems had awakened his own. Much as he wanted to avoid that, he couldn’t help but be curious. Still, Jack could not believe that he, a die-hard agnostic, could possibly help the archbishop of New York City, arguably one of the most powerful leaders in the world.
“It involves our mutual friend, Shawn Daughtry,” James added.
“Have you been playing cards again?” Jack asked, in an attempt at humor. Back in college, James and Shawn would play poker at least once a week and get into heated arguments about how much one owed the other. Several times, Jack had to intervene to get them back to talking to each other.
“This issue is of extraordinary importance,” James said. “I would prefer you not make light of it.”
“Excuse me, Father,” Jack said, realizing James was dead serious. Still trying to lighten the sudden downturn in the tone of the conversation, Jack added, “Am I supposed to call you Father, Father?”
“My title is Your Eminence,” James said, easing up a trifle. “But you can call me James, which from you I vastly prefer.”
“I’m glad,” Jack responded. “Knowing you from college as I do, it might be difficult to call you Your Eminence. It sounds too much like a rude anatomical statement.”
“You haven’t changed, have you?” James said, even more light- heartedly.
“Unfortunately, yes, I have changed. I feel like I’m living a second life totally separate from the first. But I’d rather not get into it, at least not now. Maybe when you call me in another thirty years, I’ll be ready to talk about it.”
“Has it been that long?” James said, with a touch of regret.
“Actually, it’s been thirty-one; I rounded it off to the nearest decade. But I’m not blaming you. I’m just as guilty.”
“Well, it’s something that should be rectified. After all, we live and work in the same city.”
“It seems that way,” Jack said. Jack was one of those people who refrained from spur-of-the-moment social commitments. Considering how long it had been and how divergent their careers had become, he didn’t know if he wanted to reopen a relationship from what seemed like a previous life.
“What I’d like to propose,” James said, “is we get together just as soon as possible. I know it is short notice, but would you consider coming here to the residence for a quick lunch?”
“Today?” Jack asked with utter surprise.
“Yes, today,” James reiterated. “This problem has just been dumped in my lap, and I don’t have a lot of time to deal with it. That’s why I need to ask your help.”
“Well,” Jack said, “it’s short notice, and I was invited to lunch with the Queen, but I can give her a call and tell her we’ll have to reschedule, as the Catholic Church needs my intervention.”