Margaret Again, Again

I sat in the kitchen at iDEATH, watching Pauline make the batter

for hot cakes, my favorite food. She put a lot of flour and eggs

and good things into a great blue bowl and stirred the batter

with a big wooden spoon, almost too large for her hand.

She was wearing a real nice dress and her hair was combed

on top of her head and I had stopped and picked some flowers

for her hair when we walked down the road.

They were bluebells.

"I wonder if Margaret will be here today," she said. "I'll be glad when we're talking again."

"Don't worry about it," I said. "Everything will be all right."

"It's just--well, Margaret and I have been such good friends.

I'd always liked you before, but I never thought we'd ever be

anything but friends.

"You and Margaret were so close for years. I just hope everything

works out, and Margaret finds someone new and will be

my friend again."

"Don't worry."

Fred came into the kitchen just to say, "Ummmm--hot

cakes," and then left.

Strawberries

Charley must have eaten a dozen hot cakes himself. I have

never seen him eat so many hot cakes, and Fred ate a few more

than Charley.

It was quite a sight.

There was also a big platter of bacon and lots of fresh milk

and a big pot of strong coffee, and there was a bowl of fresh

strawberries, too.

A girl came by from the town and left them off just before

breakfast. She was a gentle girl.

Pauline said, "Thank you, and what a lovely dress you have

on this morning. Did you make it yourself? You must have

because it's so pretty."

"Oh, thank you," the girl said, blushing. "I just wanted to

bring some strawberries to iDEATH for breakfast, so I got up

very early and gathered them down by the river."

Pauline ate one of the berries and gave one of them to me

"They are such fine berries," Pauline said. "You must know a

good place to get them, and you must show me where that place

"It's right near that statue of a rutabaga by the ball park, just

down from where that funny green bridge is," the girl said

She was about fourteen years old and very pleased that her

strawberries were a big hit at iDEATH.

All of the strawberries were eaten at breakfast, and again as

for the hot cakes: "These are really wonderful hot cakes," Charley

said.

"Would you like some more?" Pauline said.

"Maybe another one if there is any more batter."

"There's plenty," Pauline said. "How about you, Fred?"

"Well, maybe just one more."

The Schoolteacher

After breakfast I kissed Pauline while she was washing the

dishes and went with Fred down to the Watermelon Works to

see something he wanted to show me about the plank press.

We took a long leisurely stroll down there, through the

morning of a gray sun. It looked like it might rain but of course

it would not. The first rain of the year would not start until the

12th day of October.

"Margaret wasn't there this morning," Fred said.

"No, she wasn't," I said.

We stopped and talked to the schoolteacher who was taking

his students for a walk in the woods. While we talked to him

all the children sat down in the grass nearby, and were kind of

gathered together like a ring of mushrooms or daisies.

"Well, how's the book coming?" the schoolteacher said.

"All right," I said.

"I'll be very curious to see it," the schoolteacher said. "You

always had a way with words. I still remember that essay you

wrote on weather when you were in the sixth grade. That was

quite something.

"Your description of the winter clouds was very accurate and

quite moving at the same time and contained a certain amount

of poetic content. Yes, I am quite interested in reading your

book. Will you give any hints on what it is about?"

Fred meanwhile looked very bored. He went and sat down

with the children. He started talking to a boy about something.

"Have you expanded your essay on weather or is the book

about something else?"

The boy was very interested in what Fred was saying. A

couple of other kids moved closer.

"Oh, it's just coming along," I said. "It's pretty hard to talk

about. But you'll be one of the first I'll show it to when it's

done."

"I've always had faith in you as a writer," the schoolteacher

said. "For a long time I thought about writing a book myself,

but teaching absorbs just too much of my time."

Fred took something out of his pocket. He showed it to the

boy. He looked at it and passed it on to the other children.

"Yes, I thought that I would write a book about teaching, but

so far I've been too busy teaching to write. But it is very inspiring

to me to have one of my former star pupils carry the glorious

banner for what I myself have been too busy to do. Good luck."

"Thank you."

Fred put the thing back in his pocket and the schoolteacher

got all of his students back on their feet, and off they went to

the woods.

He was talking to them about something very important. I

could tell because he pointed back at me, and then he pointed at

a cloud that was drifting low overhead.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 704