Negotiation
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Prologue
The air raid siren screeched! I held my breath and quickly scuttled under my desk at Sts. Felicitas and Perpetua Catholic School. I prayed, prayed real hard, that God would make it go away. That my family and friends would be safe. That life would go on. That this was simply another Cuban Missile Crisis air raid drill. (No one explained why crouching under a desk would protect us from a nuclear weapon that undershot Los Angeles; perhaps the School Sisters of XXX imagined us being strafe by Russian MiGs.) But, as a young girl in eighth grade, I was never sure we were safe until the sirens stopped and Mother Cornelia beckoned us to return to our seats to continue reciting the memorized responses to Lesson four (4) in our Baltimore Catechism.
When the Second Vatican Council opened, I was this easily impressed young girl striving for perfection - and the council meant glossy photos and essays is Life magazine...