the kathies

At nine, we all wanted to be priests,
for it seemed like a holy and wholly honorable thing
to do – to care for the needs of others in
a way that seemed hard and virtuous and somewhat
sacrificial.
But at some time, soon thereafter, give or take a year,
we
discovered the Kathies – Lutz and Bisjack.
We didn’t exactly understand the pull of their smiles
or the sheen of their hair,
much less experience the secrets
hidden chastely beneath their school uniforms. (Eventually,
Paul Slapnicker did, it was surmised,
or Tommy
Mulhol.)
But there was a time when we all decided that
the “call” we were told to listen for wasn’t the one
coming from Sister Angelica and Father
Englert.
It was a loss
of innocence, perhaps, that secularization,
because it severed a final tie to an idea
bigger than each one of us. But the pull was too strong.
And, besides,
the Kathies were really, really
cute. Sometimes, now, I wonder
what might’ve happened to them,
and I think
that if our paths crossed, again, I would
thank
them
for my liberation.