Father, just look at him, He seems physically normal, Yes, but I don’t know how, Tell me dear, Well father he barely eats, and only because I make him, otherwise he stays in his room, many times at late hours of the night I see a light coming from his room, and when I rise in the morning he is up already, and it’s been more than a month since he went outside the house of his own volition, can you believe it, in this marvellous spring, father, and now he says he doesn’t want to go to the retreat, Yes, which is why I’m here, but you should have called me sooner, we might be in the presence of diabolic oppression, Oh father, tell me it isn’t so, For now I cannot tell you one way or the other, we’ll have to investigate the matter more deeply, but you do know there is one other child afflicted, Yes, father, the tailor’s daughter, No, that’s not the one, I was speaking of the baker’s youngest. The priest concluded in a somber tone, It seems to be spreading. Then he changed stance, We need to act quickly, let me talk to the boy first. And before he left the living room, he scolded her, You should do penance for bringing this evil into the family, perhaps the neighborhood, Yes, father, I curse the day I brought those damned books home.
The priest spoke to the boy, who had to be compelled to mark the page with his index finger and then turn to the representative of god on earth, and listen. Then he asked some questions of the boy, who answered plainly, eager to get back to the book. The priest came out and gave the verdict, Not diabolic in nature, but puzzling, How long do you think it’s going to last, Oh, I don’t know, two hundred years, let’s say three hundred so I am not accused of optimism, Father I don’t understand, Well dear they are called novels, which suggests novelty, but fads are strange, some can be around for quite a while, I will have to examine these books in more detail to be able to provide a more accurate prediction, But father, I was asking about my child, how long will he be afflicted, Oh him, of course, it’s not looking good, he said he wants to try and write his own now, Dear lord this is a plague, It certainly is starting to look that way, which is why I must go now, and research the matter more closely, Be careful father, Of course my child, a priest is always ready for the worst.
The priest went out and bought a handful of popular novels, set them over his desk, then examined the outside of each one without opening any. Finally, after much trepidation, he crossed himself, picked up the first one from the top and started reading, and when he finished that one, he set the book aside and opened another.