I want to start with a question that sounds simple and is not. What is the difference between losing something and burying it? When you lose a thing, it is an accident, and you retrace your steps. When you bury a thing, you choose. You dig the hole, you fill it back in, and everyone who held a shovel agrees never to bring it up.
I asked you not to go hunting for the two people I could not name, and of course you went hunting. The voicemail line was full in three days. Most of what came back was funny. One call gave me a chill I have not shaken, and by my own rule I set it aside.
Then I did what a man with a seminary-adjacent childhood does. I found a priest and handed him an index card with a word on it, exactly as it appears in the filings. He told me where the word comes from. I left the hall light on that night.
There is also a hill in Turkey, and a meeting with my department chair. Listen when you have the time, and tell me what you would have asked him.
Recorded July 18th, 2019.
THE TRILOGY
The Pattern Files is the evidence file. The story is Don't Think Me Evil, a trilogy by Elwood West. Book One, Confession, is available now at dontthinkmeevil.com.