He charged twenty-one dollars a card. 'THAT'S THE MAGIC NUMBER,' he said. 'JUST MAKE UP YOUR OWN BIRTHDAY. DON'T TELL ANYONE WHERE YOU GOT THIS. IF YOU GET CAUGHT, I DON'T KNOW YOU.'
It was the first time he'd broken the law-unless you count the business with the tadpoles and toads, and Mary Magdalene in her goal. Toronto: May , -another sunny morning, but rain developing. President Reagan is now taking the tack that he's proud of every effort he's made for the contras, whom he calls 'the moral equivalent of our founding fathers.' The president confirmed that he had 'discussed' the matter of aid with King Fahd of Saudi Arabia; he's changed his story from only two days ago. The Globe and Mail pointed out that 'the king had brought up the subject'; does it matter who brought it up? 'My diary shows I never brought it up,' the president said. 'I expressed pleasure that he was doing that.'' I never thought the president could do anything that would make me feel at all close to him; but Mr. Reagan keeps a diary, too! Owen kept a diary. The first entry was as follows: 'THIS DIARY WAS GIVEN TO ME FOR CHRISTMAS, , BY MY BENEFACTOR, MRS. HARRIET WHEELWRIGHT; IT IS MY INTENTION TO MAKE MRS. WHEELWRIGHT PROUD OF ME.'
I don't believe that Dan Needham and I thought of my grandmother as Owen's BENEFACTOR, although-quite literally-that is what she'd become; but that Christmas of , Dan and I-and Grandmother-had reason-to be especially proud of Owen Meany. He'd had a busy fall. Randy White, our new headmaster, had also been busy; he'd been making decisions, left and right, and The Voice riad not allowed a single headmasterly move to pass unchallenged. The first decision had actually been Mrs. White's; she'd not liked the Thorndikes' old home-it was, traditionally, the headmaster's house, it had already housed three headmasters (two of them had died there; old Thorny, when he retired, had moved to his former summer home in Rye, where he planned to live year 'round). But the traditional house was not up to the Lake Forest standards that the Whites were used to; it was a well-kept, colonial house on Pine Street, but it was 'too old'
for the Whites-and 'too dark,' she said, and 'too far from the main campus,' he said; and a 'poor place to entertain,' they both agreed. Apparently, Sam White liked to ' 'entertain.''
'WHOM ARE THEY GOING TO ENTERTAIN?' asked The Voice, who was critical of what he called 'THE WHITES' SOCIAL PRIORITIES.'' Indeed, it was an expensive decision, too; a new house was built for the headmaster-so central in its location that its ongoing construction was a campus eyesore throughout Owen's and my eleventh-grade year. There had been some problems with the architect-or else Mrs. White had changed her mind about a few of the interior particulars- after the construction was in progress; hence the delay. It was a rather plain saltbox-'NOT IN KEEPING WITH THE OLDER FACULTY HOUSES,' as Owen pointed out; also, its positioning interrupted a broad, beautiful expanse of lawn between the old library and the Main Academy Building.
'There's going to be a new library one day soon, anyway,' the headmaster said; he was working up an expanded building proposal that included a new library, two new dormitories, a new dining hall, and-'down the road'-a new gym with coeducational facilities. 'Coeducation,' the headmaster said, 'is a part of the future of any progressive school.'
said: 'IT IS IRONIC AND SELF-SERVING THAT THE SO-CALLED 'EXPANDED BUILDING PROPOSAL' SHOULD BEGIN WITH A NEW HOUSE FOR THE HEADMASTER. IS HE GOING TO 'ENTERTAIN' ENOUGH HIGH-INCOME ALUMNI IN THAT HOUSE TO GET THE SO-CALLED 'CAPITAL FUND DRIVE' OFF THE GROUND? IS THIS THE HOUSE THAT PAYS FOR EVERYTHING-FROM THE GYM ON DOWN?'
When the headmaster's house was finally ready for occupancy, the Rev. Mr. Merrill and his family were moved out of a rather crowded dormitory apartment and into the former headmaster's house on Pine Street. It was, unpractically, at some distance from Kurd's Church; but the Rev. Lewis Merrill, as a newcomer to the school, must have been grateful to have been given such a nice, old home. As soon as Randy White had done Mr. Merrill this favor, the headmaster made another decision. Morning chapel, which was daily, had always been held in Kurd's Church; it was not really a religious service, except for the ritual of singing an opening and closing hymn-and concluding the morning remarks or announcements with a prayer. The school minister did not usually officiate
morning chapel; the most frequent officiant was the headmaster himself. Sometimes a faculty member gave us a mini-lecture in his field, or one of the students delivered an impassioned plea for a new club. Occasionally, something exciting happened: I remember a fencing demonstration; another time, one of the alumni-who was a famous magician-gave us a magic show, and one of the rabbits escaped in Kurd's Church and was never found. What Mr. White decided was that Kurd's Church was too gloomy a place for us to start our mornings; he moved our daily assembly to the theater in the Main Academy Building-The Great Hall, it was called. Although the morning light was more evident there and the room had a high-ceilinged loftiness to it, it was, at the same time, austere-the towering portraits of former headmasters and faculty frowned grimly down upon us in their deep-black academic regalia. The faculty who chose to attend morning chapel (they were not required to be there, as we were) now sat on the elevated stage and looked down upon us, too. When the stage was set for a school play, the curtain was drawn and there was little room for the faculty on the narrow front of the stage. That was the first thing that Owen criticized about the decision: in Kurd's Church, the faculty had sat in pews with the students-the faculty felt encouraged to attend. But in The Great Hall, when one of Dan's plays was set on the stage, there was room for so few chairs that faculty attendance was discouraged. In addition, Owen felt that 'THE ELEVATION OF THE STAGE AND THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE MORNING LIGHT PROVIDE THE HEADMASTER WITH SUCH AN EXAGGERATED PLATFORM FROM WHICH TO SPEAK;
