“I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No way but this, killing myself, to die upon a kiss,” and Othello puts his lips full on those of Desdemona as he stabs himself
Thomas walked to the exit door upstage. He slipped out into the hallway and dodged around to the lobby, which should have been empty. You can’t let your friends see you crying at Shakespeare.
But the darkened lobby was not empty. Mr. Warden was there, sitting on one of the sofas, and he was red-eyed, too.
Thomas did not run away from Mr. Warden. He sat with him.
“I thought I could watch it, but I couldn’t,” said Mr. Warden.
“I know,” said Thomas. “It got to me tonight.”
“You should be backstage for a curtain call, shouldn’t you?” said Mr. Warden.
But Thomas was not thinking of taking bows. “I’ve decided to stay here,” he said. “Will you?”
“I think not,” said Mr. Warden. “Too many reminders, too many distractions. Maybe I’ll come back someday.”
They heard the audience inside break into roars of applause. The play was over.
“He was a good man,” said Thomas, “wasn’t he?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Warden. “That’s what makes it a tragedy.”
Author’s Postscript
When this novel first appeared in the spring of 1990, both Times Square and boarding schools were quite different from their modern-day incarnations. Where we now see Disney and candy shops and tourists along West 42nd Street, thirty years ago we had seedy peep shows, porn, and prostitution. Back then, boarding schools were pre-cell phone, pre-laptop, pre-email, pre-social media, pre-WiFi, pre-iPad, and pre-Netflix. Most important, they were also pre-Columbine High School massacre. Believe it or not, thirty years ago crime fiction remained the only conceivable location for multiple deaths on a school campus. We have sadly learned in the intervening years just how devastating a violent death on a campus can be. Readers who wonder at the callousness of the Montpelier School for Boys in this novel must remember that they’re reading a best guess about how a school might react to the unthinkable. My 2018 self has been tempted to overhaul the writing of my 1988 self, but I have resisted that temptation on the grounds that my younger voice deserves to speak without the interference of an aging pedant.
My thanks to Claiborne Hancock of Pegasus Books for proposing this resurrection for Passion Play and to Maria Fernandez for her sterling editorial assistance. I should also thank E. Stacy Creamer, editor of the earlier edition, and the agent who sold the book to Stacy, the late Nancy Love. Readers of the original draft, Nat Jobe and Johanna Smethurst, remain reliably blunt in their assessments, and Ann Glover, who designed the map of the campus, is still making beautiful art. Thanks to family and friends for indulging an indulgent writer. Finally, I salute gratefully my colleagues and students at Woodberry Forest School, past and present, for providing me with infinite inspiration, support, and joy.
W. Edward Blain
April, 2018
ALSO BY W. EDWARD BLAIN
Love Cools
passion play
Pegasus Books Ltd.
148 W 37th Street, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2018 by W. Edward Blain
First Pegasus Books edition April 2018
Interior design by Maria Fernandez
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN: 978-1-68177-650-7
ISBN: 978-1-68177-723-8 (e-book)
Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
www.pegasusbooks.us
