Reto thanked the Abbot for his unusual gift. Reto had been expecting a gift when he heard last week that Abbot Camenzind wanted to see him in his office today. He did get top honours in his graduating class at the Benedictine Cloister School (Gymnasium) in Disentis and was applying for a position as a Swiss Guard with the Vatican in Rome. Graduation was tomorrow in the Abbey’s Church and he still had to prepare his speech in Rumantsch, his native tongue and translate it into German and Italian, the other two Swiss languages spoken in the Canton of the Grisons in Southeastern Switzerland.
Reto, a Swiss Roman Catholic, would first have to complete basic military training over the next six months with the Swiss Army before being posted to the Vatican. He had arranged to join a unit in the Canton of Fribourg so he could improve his French at the same time. The Swiss Guards are in reality mercenaries paid to defend the Pope and the Vatican. Recruits to the Guards must be Catholic, single males with Swiss citizenship who have obtained certificates of good conduct. They must have a professional degree or at least a diploma from a highly respected secondary institution such as the Cloister School in Disentis. They must be between the age of 19 and 30 years and be at least 174 cm (5 ft, 8.5 in) tall. Guards are sworn in on 6th May every year and must commit themselves for a minimum of 2 years of service. Besides the Swiss Guard, there is a domestic (Italian) police force, the Vigelanza, and at the other end of the security spectrum, hovers a shadowy secret service equivalent to the CIA or the KGB.
Flash forward; it is now 3 months since Redo has been sworn in during which time he was in training conducted by the Guard’s Commander. He had to wear his decorative gala uniform with breastplate and helmet. A sword hung on his left side and he carried a halberd blade attached to a four-sided wood pole on his right side. No wonder that at the best of times young guardsmen easily became homesick. This was due to the unbearable heat, dirt and stink of Rome during the long summer months. They very much missed the fresh air, mountain streams and forests at home. Nonetheless, even a short undistinguished spell of service in the Swiss Guard has traditionally opened doors for a subsequent career back home. Most young Swiss men wanted an exciting tour of duty during their stay in Rome and resented being tied down to their Vatican quarters with a lot of restrictions. Social activities came down to a bottle of cheep “Vino” and a few rounds of the Swiss card game, “Jass”. As a new boy, Reto usually had too much of the former and lost too much of his measly wages on the later. Well, Reto had enough of this; he wanted to go home and he was going to do something about it!
He rushed out of the common room back to his sleeping cubicle and wildly began pulling out all his belonging from the rusted old clothes locker which stood next to his camp bed. He found what he was seeking back in a corner below the “family” bible which his mother insisted he take along to the Vatican. It was the unusual graduation gift from his school back home which he had not even taken out of the box yet. On the outside of the box, above an accurate picture in colour of the contents was written: Cobra Double Barrel 38 Special Derringer Pistol with Mother-of-Pearl Handle. He quickly breezed through the instructions, unwrapped the box of bullets which were included, took out two, inserted one in each barrel, pulled down his jeans and shot himself, once in each thigh just above his boxer shorts line! He would be back home in Disentis in 10 days!
