I almost didn’t graduate from high school because of Cardinal Newman. He was the namesake of our school and a life-sized statue that graced the foyer. He was also the subject of many pranks and disappearances over the years. The longest one lasted a month when he was found in the confessional (seems no one had been there in awhile—this was the seventies, after all).

Our principal was a white-haired, no-nonsense priest who didn’t take kindly to the statue’s disappearance. So when Cardinal Newman disappeared the week before graduation, he assumed it was one of the graduating seniors pulling a last prank. He was right, of course. The day before graduation, when the Cardinal still hadn’t shown up, Father gave us an ultimatum: if the statue wasn’t returned by the next day, none of us would graduate.

Looking back, I realize it was a false threat. He wouldn’t have cancelled graduation because of a few misbehaving students. But I suppose he was panicked at the thought of graduation without the beloved statue in the foyer welcoming guests. Or maybe he was frazzled because it was the end of the school year. I wondered how the students who took him felt when Father made the threat, if they were thinking the same thing, or if they were secretly laughing at having pulled one last memorable hoax. But the Cardinal reappeared back in place as mysteriously as he’d disappeared and graduation went on as planned.

I’m writing a scene about a student prank now. Looking back, the missing Cardinal was harmless and perhaps too mild for the book I’m writing. High school students are more sophisticated. I doubt they’d be impressed by a missing statue. But the event is ripe in my memory with those same feelings: the tension and excitement, the worry and anger at the administration. That’s what I hope to capture in my scene.

Many things have changed over the years since I attended high school. The school has been expanded and renovated. Student uniforms are different. Even our school colors have changed. But the Cardinal is still there, still greeting people in his usual place. Only now he’s a permanent fixture, unable to be moved. It’s safer for him now.

Of course, students are still pulling pranks. As a former teacher, I’ve been subjected to a few myself. As a writer, it’s all good material. So I continue to mine the feelings of the past, to put my characters in trouble as they pull their own pranks and create their own lasting memories.