The Man Who Lives In the Gym

The Man Who Lives in the Gym St. Procopius College Lisle, Illinois after World War II The man who lives in the gym sleeps in a nook up the stairs to the rear. Since Poland he's slept there, his tools bright in a box locked under his bed. At noon bells call him down to the stones that weave under oaks to the abbey where he at long table takes meals with the others the monks have let in for a week, or a month, or a year or forever, whatever the need. The others all know that in Poland his wife had been skewered, his children partitioned, that he had escaped in a freight car of hams. So when Brother brings in, on a gun metal tray, orange sherbet for all in little green dishes, they blink at his smile, they join in his laughter. Donal Mahoney