Totally Tossed

Prosper Andre Batinge

Description

The indubitable offender is the victim, and the supposed victim is the villain of sexual harassment in Prosper's Totally Tossed.
Totally Tossed traces the journey of the Rev. Fr. Priestley Plubriuschola, SJ, a Jesuit priest, who is falsely accused of sexual harassment and defrocked, as he searches for a new life and identity, one totally different from his former life as a Jesuit priest and as a university professor. To his surprise, he succeeds in carving a new life full of meaning and even greater consolation.

Sujets

• Priesthood (Catholic Church)
• Senate
• Spirituality
• Politics
• Society of Jesus
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 23 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665737531
• Langue: English

Extrait

Totally Tossed

 
 
 
 
 
PROSPER ANDRE BATINGE
 
 
 
 

 
 
Copyright © 2023 Prosper Andre Batinge.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3754-8 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3753-1 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023901093
 
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 01/23/2023
CONTENTS
Prologue
1 The Complaints
2 Who Is She?
3 Suicide Note
4 The Effect
5 The Curia
6 The Holy Mountain
7 The Call From The Curia
8 The Meeting
9 Still A Sense of Gratitude
10 Mentor Ponders
11 The Good Bye
12 The Governor
13 The Breakfast
14 The Bus Trip
15 Schola Meets Ms Harvanet
16 The College of Presidents
17 The Meeting
18 Right To A Jury of His Peers
19 Schola Returns Conner’s Call
20 Reactions –Jesuits and Presidents
21 Meeting
22 Room Above Schola’s
23 Examen in D.C.
24 Morning in DC
25 Considering the Offer
26 Schola Joins Defense Team
27 Temporary Office
28 Pre-marital agreement
29 Prosecutor Lucille Kast
30 Press Conferences
31 Schola Finishes Opinion
32 A Knock On The Door
33 Firm Discharges Senator
34 Hyatt Evicts the Senator
35 The Senator visits Schola
36 Discerning on Taking up the job
37 Client’s File Delivered
38 Help From Mr Conkling
39 Mr Conkling Returns Call
40 Preparing to Meet Schola
41 The Meeting
42 Opening Arguments – Court Scene
43 Similarities Church and Court
44 Old Trials
45 Prosecutor’s Opening
46 Schola’s opening
47 Recess/First Witness—Direct Exam
48 Cross of mother
49 Cross Continues
50 Second Recess
51 Cross Continues
52 Recess And Cross
53 Judge Kaufman On Recess
54 Defense On Recess
55 Cross Continues
56 Direct of Daughter
57 Exposé on daughter
58 Cross of Daughter
59 Cross Continues After Recess
60 Cross Continues
61 Judge’s Chambers
62 Judge Kaufman Recalls Late Judge
63 In Camera Hearing
64 Ms Pincus is Afraid
65 Cross Continues
66 re-direct
67 Cross of Re-direct
68 A Second Re-direct
69 Prosecutor’s closing
70 Schola’s Closing
71 Jury Deliberates
72 The Holy Mountain
73 The Soup Kitchen
74 The Handyman
75 The Transcripts
76 Fixing Her Affairs
77 Fixing Her Affairs 2
78 Cardinal Meets Dr Malus
79 Cardinal Hears Prof Duval
80 Cardinal Calls
81 Provincial in Nairobi
82 Mentor Calls the Governor
83
84 Provincial Meets Prof. Duval/Schola visits New York
85 The Trip To NYC
86 At the Cardinal’s Residence
87 The Meeting
88 Schola is Angry
89 Schola Meets Patient
90 Cardinal and Senator at Breakfast
91 Views of the Consultants
92 Flight Back After Hospital Visit
93 Senator Conner’s Seat
94 The Governor’s Medical Report
95 The Judge Muses on Schola
96 Mistrial Announced
97 Ananda is with Mother
98 The Senator
99 Schola Visits the Senator
100 The Chef
101 The Will
102 In Senator’s Study with Schola
103 Renewed Mr Conkling
104 The Governor, His Affairs
105 Ananda and the Governor
106 Dean as President
107 Indiana Supreme Court
108 The Disciplinary Hearing
109 Governor Updates Will
110 Updated Will
111 Schola to Deliver Letter
112 Ananda And Governor
113 Schola Meets Provincial
114 Ruling On Mr Conkling
115 Governor/Ms Stokes Tour House
116 Visit to the Family Cemetery
117 Governor Reads the Letter; Lunch of the Three
Epilogue
PROLOGUE
America wakes up to a mournful morning: Monday, October 23, 2017.
Fox is streaming it live. CNN is streaming it live. ABC is streaming it live. NBC is streaming it live. MSNBC is streaming it live. Beyond America’s borders, BBC is carrying it live. So is Sky News as well as Aljazeera. Everybody is carrying it live on Facebook, Twitter.
The earth, it appears, pauses on its orbit.
She douses herself with gas. Then opens the lighter. She is burning. The image of a burning woman on live TV pauses the usual activities of this mournful Monday morning. Viewers watch in complete dismay. The otherwise talkative morning cable network anchors are too numb to comment. When news anchors manage a comment, a choked whimper echoes. Like their viewers, the anchors sit in disbelief and watch. It’s like an Oscar winning movie. Only this time, it isn’t a movie. It’s real.
Ms Corell Woolsey is self-immolating. She burns herself in the full glare of the public. Up until now, Ms Woolsey is unknown. Even in the office where she works, until fired a day ago, few people know her. She’s reclusive. She stays her lane. She minds her business. Her personal business is one: cater for her two kids and a sick, bed-ridden mother.
This mournful Monday morning, America watches as Ms Woolsey burns. And so does the rest of the world.
Helplessly.
1
THE COMPLAINTS
T HE COMPLAINTS STILL SIT ON the desk of the head of HR. Ms Woolsey reports that her supervisor sexually harasses her. Management “looks” into her complaint and finds no merit. Management warns Ms Woolsey for her frivolous claims and for tainting the reputation of one of the rainmakers of the company.
Ms Woolsey makes another complaint after the same man abuses her several times again. And again, management “looks” into her complaint, and again, management finds no merit. This time, Ms Woolsey gets more than a warning. She gets a final warning: another frivolous complaint, she’s out of the door! Lots of people desperately need her job. Ms Woolsey is ungrateful. If she doesn’t want to work here, she should go. Her petty lies are distracting the productivity of the company, management concludes.
The sexual assault finds a new reckless confidence with the “findings” of no merit in her complaints. Her supervisor doubles down on his pervert excesses. Her supervisor knows that his bosses have his back. His bosses’ hands are as dirty as his. The bosses have his back.
But Ms Woolsey doesn’t want to lose her job. She has a young daughter, a breastfeeding son as well as an aged and sick mother in the hospice. All three vulnerable persons depend on her sweat. She mustn’t lose her job; she silently tells herself. But even a caring mother and dutiful daughter like Ms Woolsey has a breaking point as we all do. Sometimes human resilience can’t withstand evil.
Ms Woolsey does well. She takes the abuses for a while. She won’t complain again. She doesn’t want to lose her job. Regardless, she is still fired when her supervisor no longer finds her attractive. She packs her things home. She won’t give up. She’ll look for another job.
But this morning: Monday, October 23, 2017, she changes her mind. Ms Woolsey can’t continue. She comes to the end of her endurance. She decides to end it all. Sometimes human resilience can’t withstand evil. With gas and a lighter, she sets herself on fire at Central Park. Ms Woolsey brings her heroic life to an end in the most painful of deaths–self-immolation.
She drenches herself with so much gas. The inferno takes one minute to envelope her and five minutes to completely burn her into ashes.
2
WHO IS SHE?
T HE MUTE ANCHORS FIND THEIR voices after the fire dies down. Is it suicide? Is there a suicide note? What could cause a woman in her prime to end her life in so barbaric a manner? Answers aren’t forthcoming.
Ms Woolsey is a quiet citizen. Works quietly. Pays her taxes quietly. Doesn’t care about politics. No presence in social media. Takes care of her daughter and son and dying mother. She’s friendless.
Media producers try in vain to unveil Ms Woolsey’s identity.
As well, media producers struggle in vain to find doyens on self-immolation to bring their expertise to bear on the event of this mournful Monday morning, which might well prove the event of the year, probably of the decade. It isn’t easy finding self-immolation experts. Not even self-styled connoisseurs. For once, the media doesn’t have experts on an urgent issue of utmost public interest.
3
SUICIDE NOTE
M S WOOLSEY INDEED LEAVES A suicide note. A signed letter in a white envelope tied to the right hand of her still sleeping son. The police finds it in her apartment—now a crime scene.
The new find is leaked to the press. She dies because of work-place sexual assault. The abuses span over the past decade. When she reports these abuses, she gets a severe reprimanded instead, then, a sack eventually. So she decides to end it all.
The suicide note ends with an apology. She apologizes to her daughter and son and her mother for failing them. She apolo