Magdalene was taller. She was also taller than the headmaster, even without her head; compared to Randy White, the decapitated Mary Magdalene was a little bigger than life-sized-her shoulders and the stump of her neck stood taller ' above the podium onstage than the headmaster would. And Owen had placed the holy goalie on no pedestal. He had bolted her to the stage floor. And he had strapped her with those same steel bands the quarrymen used to hold the granite slabs on the flatbed; he had bound her to the podium and fastened her to the floor, making quite certain that she would not be as easily removed from the stage as Dr. Dolder's Volkswagen.
'I suppose,' Dan said to the janitor, 'that those metal bands are pretty securely attached.'
'Yup!' the janitor said.
'I suppose those bolts go right through the podium, and right through the stage,' Dan said, 'and I'll bet he put those nuts on pretty tight.'
'Nope!' the janitor said. 'He welded everything together.'
'That's pretty tight,' said Dan Needham.
'Yup!' the janitor said. I had forgotten: Owen had learned welding-Mr. Meany had wanted at least one of his quarrymen to be a welder, and Owen, who was such a natural at learning, had been the one to learn.
'Have you told the headmaster?' Dan asked the janitor.
'Nope!' the janitor said. 'I ain't goin' to, either,' he said-'not this time.'
'I suppose it wouldn't do any good for him to know, anyway,' Dan said.
'That's what I thought!' the janitor said. Dan and I went to the school dining hall, where we were unfamiliar faces at breakfast; but we were very hungry, after driving around all night-and besides, I wanted to pass the
word: 'Tell everyone to get to morning meeting a little early,' I told my Mends. I heard Dan passing the word to some of his friends on the faculty: 'If you go to only one more morning meeting for the rest of your life, I think this should be the one.'
Dan and I left the dining hall together. There wasn't time to return to Waterhouse Hall and take a shower before morning meeting, although we badly needed one. We were both anxious for Owen, and agitated-not knowing how his presentation of the mutilated Mary Magdalene might make his dismissal from the academy appear more justified than it was; we were worried how his desecration of the statue of a saint might give those colleges and universities that were sure to accept him a certain reluctance.
'Not to mention what the Catholic Church-I mean, Saint Michael's-is going to do to him,' Dan said. 'I better have a talk with the head guy over there-Father What's-His-Name.''
'Do you know him?' I asked Dan.
'No, not really,' Dan said; 'but I think he's a friendly sort of fellow-Father O'Somebody, I think. I wish I could remember his name-O'Malley, O'Leary, O'Rourke, O'Some,' he said.
'I'll bet Pastor Merrill knows him,' I said. And that was why Dan and I walked to Kurd's Church before morning meeting; sometimes the Rev. Lewis Merrill said his prayers there before walking to the Main Academy Building; sometimes he was up early, just biding his time in the vestry office. Dan and I saw the trailer-truck from the Meany Granite Company parked behind the vestry. Owen was sitting in the vestry office-in Mr. MerrilFs usual chair, behind Mr. Mer-rill's desk, tipping back in the creaky old chair and rolling the chair around on its squeaky casters. There was no sign of Pastor Merrill.
'I HAVE AN EARLY APPOINTMENT,' Owen explained to Dan and me. 'PASTOR MERRILL'S A LITTLE LATE.'
He looked all right-a little tired, a little nervous, or just restless. He couldn't sit still in the chair, and he fiddled with the desk drawers, pulling them open and closing them-not appearing to pay any attention to what was inside the drawers, but just opening and closing them because they were there.
'You've had a busy night, Owen,' Dan told him.
'PRETTY BUSY,' said Owen Meany.
'How are you?' I asked him.
'I'M FINE,' he said. 'I BROKE THE LAW, I GOT CAUGHT, I'M GOING TO PAY-THAT'S HOW IT IS,' he said.
'You got screwed!' I said.
'A LITTLE BIT,' he nodded-then he shrugged. 'IT'S NOT AS IF I'M ENTIRELY INNOCENT,' he added.
'The important thing for you to think about is getting into college,' Dan told him. 'The important thing is that you get in, and
