I thought at first he was saying the school was over, that he had a new job. No, he said. Us, he said. No more us, not now nor ever. He was forsaking the flesh, and seeking the life of the soul. I laughed out loud at that—there was never a fleshier man to love God—and that made him furious. Well, it would, but I was so far from ready for this diktat and hardly accustomed to being instructed by him or anyone else.