“No,” Ted said. “Not yet, anyway.”

“You still have time, but don’t wait too long.”

Just then Alicia returned. She set the two Dixie cups on the table, casting a baleful eye at Billy.

“What took you so long?” Ted asked.

“The bartender seemed to have forgotten the recipe for gin and tonic,” she said.

She sat down, and Ted introduced her to Billy.

“Well, I think this place is just awful,” she said to Billy.

“Oh, it sounds like you just found that out,” Billy boomed cheerily, and then said to Ted, “You’re kidding, right? You mean you never told her?” When Ted didn’t answer, he went on, “Aw, come one, sport, you don’t mean you’re still going on about that kid– what’s his name?– that Adam kid. My God, that was nearly thirty years ago. I didn’t expect you to still be carrying that around. Them–” jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the other tables– “yeah, sure. Believe you me, they’re still gossiping about it, but that just proves the whole thing was stupid– people just don’t like to let stupid things die. The kid slipped– it was an accident– accidents happen. It’s all that simple.” He paused to pat his brow dry. “What they did to you was a– a– a sin, that’s what. Kid falls out of the tower and gets himself killed, and it has to be somebody’s fault, right? You know why? Because if they don’t blame somebody, then everybody is going to wonder why they didn’t seal that doorway years ago– or at least put a lock on it. Besides, it’s not like it was the only time it happened.”

“What do you mean?” Ted asked, frowning.

“It happened again. I thought you know. About five years after we graduated some kid took a swan dive out of the tower– splat. And then again, last year. To tell you the truth, I don’t think Adam was the first, either. One of my uncles attended here back in the forties, and he told me that three or four kids fell out of the tower. 1938, 1941 and 1942– something like that. What they were saying back then was that there was a curse on the tower. If you believe it that stuff– personally I think it’s a load of horse manure. But the story goes, way back in the 20’s, some nun hanged herself up there. That was why they took the bell down. Ever since then the tower was considered an evil place. They even tried sealing the door, but after that the school and the church, across the street, started to suffered a streak of bad luck– really weird things started happening. Parishioners started dropping dead during Mass. The rectory burned to the ground, and a couple priests got toasted. My personal favorite, though– and this supposedly appeared in the papers– the school was hit by a small meteorite. Can you believe that? The thing was about the size of a football, and it went through the roof all the way to the basement. It sliced through three class rooms on the way, and a nun and six or seven kids got killed. Anyway, somewhere along the line, they decided that whatever evil was locked up in the tower didn’t like it very much. So they actually unsealed the door, and guess what? The streak of bad luck ended. A little while later, the first kid fell off the tower. Kids have been falling every so often ever since– almost like the tower was taking a sacrifice now and then.