SUMMER/1962

t was late July. Hard of sun in Central Texas. The mid-afternoon heat sizzled off the asphalt in waves and created the illusion that the pavement itself was dripping in sweat. Leota sat on the patio in the shade alternately stroking her forehead with a tall wet glass of iced tea in one hand and fanning herself with last week's Jehovah's Witnesses brochure, frayed along the edges and never to be read, in the other hand. Her right foot, once her best foot, was propped up on two pillows and resting on the redwood bench from the picnic table trapped inside it's plaster cast which extended half-way up the calf of her leg. Her ten year old granddaughter, Kerry, was spending the summer with her though Kerry's own home was only a half mile away. Today was the first day out of the six days since Kerry had taken up residence at her house that Leota would have given anything to be mobile just long enough to chase that kid down and shake some sense into her head. Leota had not once in her fifteen years of grandmotherdom spanked a grandchild, she had, on the other hand, rattled a few teeth in her time.

Kerry's father, Jeff, had given her a sweet little yellow chick two years ago at Easter. Kerry had named it Janet, but as the months had gone by, they'd discovered it was definitely not a Janet. Leota had renamed it Jangles. This fully grown, no longer sweet, no longer yellow rooster had been sent to live at Leota's house. It was, without a doubt, the meanest rooster Leota had ever seen. She had permanent scars on her ankles from that bird taking swipes at her feet while she was hanging up clothes on the clothesline . . . he considered that area to be his territory. Kerry was the only human he was civil to and he would traipse along beside Kerry in the yard just like a puppy dog.

Leota looked on impatiently at Kerry and that no good Jangles stood at the fence line provoking the neighbor's dog to the point of creating a nonstop disturbance of barking from that side of the fence. The dog's name was Dodger. He was old and smelled bad, but normally he was a good natured old hound. It was just this hot day, this one hundred and one in the shade, the mischief of a ten year old who knew better, and an ugly little rooster who was totally mindless that brought about Dodger's continuous burst of loud barking.

"Kerry, I need some more ice for this tea."

Kerry was basically an obedient child and she did, after some lingering, come running to tend to her Grandmother's needs. She was already in arm reaching distance before she noticed that there was plenty of ice in Leota's tea. Ah, but Kerry was always just a little too late to noticing such things and Leota had a firm grip on her arm.

"Kerry, ya little dickens, if I've told you once I've told you a hundred times that Dodger is just too old for you to mess with. Why, you could cause old Dodger's heart to give out. Then how would you feel?"

Kerry was a wiggler and the more she wiggled the harder Leota shook. About the only asset Kerry possessed was talking and she could pretty well talk her way out of anything, even with her teeth a-rattling.

"Well, uh, Grandmother, I s'pose I'd be very sad if I caused Dodger's heart to give out. Jangles and I would be very sorry if that happened 'cause we'd miss old Dodger. We thought he was having fun with us, honest, Grandmother we never meant to hurt Dodger's heart. I'll just run over there and tell him I'm sorry."

Kerry stood on one foot and then the other. She had a spike of her bangs dipping into her right eye which caused Leota to be swayed from the issue at hand. Kerry had this stringy brown hair which she wore in long pigtails except for those bangs and for some reason known only in the logic of Kerry's mind she refused to allow anyone to trim those bangs out of her eyes. It drove Leota crazy to see those bangs dangling in Kerry's eyes and obstructing the child's vision.

"Run along inside and bring back my scissors from on top of the dresser. Not the big ones, but the short skinny ones. I can't stand another minute of watching that hair hang in your eyes," Leota said.

"But Grandmother, it's not in my eyes. I can see just fine. I won't bother Dodger anymore," Kerry whined.

It wasn't Kerry's whining that saved her this time but the clatter of a bicycle coming up the driveway, it's wheels kicking the gravel into the spokes. Leota's only grandson and Kerry's brother, Raleigh, had a habit of peddling that bike as fast as he could up that driveway so that when he reached the backyard he could jump off just before it hit the grass and see how far the bike would coast on it's own before toppling over. This time the bike, seeming to take on Leota's sentiments, wobbled along at a good click right on the heels of a squalling Jangles before it smacked into the fence and set old Dodger to barking again.

Raleigh was rolling in the grass balled up in laughter.

He yelled, "Wow, Grandmother, did you see that? I mean did you see that? That's got to be a world's record right there, all the way to the fence, whew, I'll never do that again."

"Well, I certainly hope not, you liked to scared me to death with that bicycle and I just scolded Kerry for bothering Dodger," Leota replied.

Raleigh was a big boy for twelve. His hands and feet seemed to have been made for someone twice his current size. Leota suspected he'd eventually make it to that size what with the rate in which he was growing. Raleigh was doomed to live in high water britches for the time being since he grew out of his Levi jeans so fast. He had what his mother referred to as his 'summer cut' and the boys all called a 'flat-top', though the actual style for a flat-top required that the hair stand straight up at a perfect point in the front, Raleigh had a cowlick right smack dab in the middle, so his flat-top wasn't quite what the other boys considered to be the style. Raleigh could go through two to three jars of 'butch wax' a week just trying to get that hair to stand up straight in the front like the other boys. 'Butch wax' was this highly scented jelly type substance which Leota had banned from her house some time ago, and here was Raleigh bending down to hug her reeking of the stuff and leaving quite a greasy glob of it on Leota's cheek.

"Grandmother, can Kerry go to the park this afternoon?" Raleigh asked. "They're gonna have a tetherball championship day after tomorrow and Kerry's just about the best player we have in our neighborhood. I thought maybe she should go down there and practice today!"

"Raleigh, I just don't know about this park business. Kerry's already been down there once today for swimming lessons and she was an hour late coming home. I can't be up running around looking for Kerry all the time. She's supposed to be helping me and all I do is sit out here a-wondering what she's into," Leota said.

Raleigh sat down in the grass and plucked one of the cool green blades from the ground to chew on. The heat of the day caused the 'butch wax' to melt a bit and run down onto his forehead. With his hair cut so closely to his head on the sides, his ears gave the impression that at any moment the child could take flight and sail away into the clear blue sky, free from the boredom of a hot summer day in Austin, Texas, 1962. It was a stand off here, this waiting game he could play so well with his Grandmother. Raleigh was quite good at understanding the differences between adults, the limits they would go, and just what pose to take to make them wish you would go on about your business that they'd already said 'no' to in the first place.

Kerry sat on the stairs by the backdoor and stared at her Grandmother. She didn't really want to go to the park, but the fact that Leota had said 'no' made it seem much more appealing. This was her place for the summer, over here in Grandmother's way, playing with Jangles. What was 'ole Raleigh doing coming here anyway? She was too small to win the tetherball championship. She wished she'd grow this summer so that when school started in the fall she could laugh at all those kids who made fun of her for being small for her age. Actually, this was the first year that she'd ever paid must attention to her size. It never bothered her . . . till now. During the last year all of her girlfriends had gotten Barbie Dolls, and they sat on backporches for hours playing these private little games with these adult dolls. Her mother had given her a Barbie Doll and Ken Doll for Christmas, they were still in the box, up on a shelf, in her room at home. Her mother had tried to get Kerry excited about having the dolls, going through their little wardrobes, which in Kerry's mind, had nothing to do with her day to day. . . . There on Christmas morning with her mother pointing out that the little black trousers which went with Ken's tuxedo even had a real fly in them which made no sense at all to Kerry who couldn't understand why anyone would want to have a pesky 'ole fly in their pants.

Kerry pushed a strand of damp hair off her forehead and tapped her foot impatiently on the ground. Raleigh was playing his waiting game with Grandmother and she wasn't much good at that waiting game. There was too much to do to wait for anything, not when you could be doing something else just as fun. But, Raleigh could wait, he was a master at waiting for the world to come his way. Life came his way by the truckload and all he had to do was wait for it to pass by. Like at dinnertime . . . Raleigh hated corn . . . the rule was that you had to eat at least three bites of everything on your plate . . . Raleigh never ate his corn . . . and their Mother would say, "Raleigh, if you don't eat that corn, I'm going to save it till breakfast and by then you'll be so hungry you'll have to eat that corn."

Raleigh never ate his corn, their Mother would forget and he'd have a nice big bowl of Cheerios for breakfast, while that corn sat in a saucer in the refrigerator all shriveled up and greasy with the margarine congealed on top.

Leota marveled at her grandchildren. If only her husband, Edgar, were still alive to see how beautiful they were. Leota was fifty-seven, still lovely in her own way. The children often asked her why she didn't look like other children's grandmothers. She was small and very thin with the most magical green eyes. She could see through all with those eyes. Just like right now she could see that Raleigh was trying to wear her down into saying they could go to the park. . . . Oh, she'd let Kerry go for an hour or so . . . but right now she just wanted to watch them both . . . to have them still and totally in focus. Sitting still and observing others would not be an occupation of Leota's, if not for this cast on her foot, and Kerry was just like her . . . she would grow up in the image of that same impatience, always in a hurry and moving too quickly from one thing to another to ever lose her own naivety to anything. Her oldest Granddaughter, Ethel, was a different story from the other two. Yes, indeed, this had been some summer for Leota, and she looked away from Kerry's tapping foot now at her own foot with it's yellowing cast and colorful signatures and pictures that Kerry had drawn there. Ethel was the only one who hadn't signed it . . . for good reason . . . if it wasn't for Ethel she wouldn't have a broken foot.

On the 4th of July all the children and her daughter, Julie, had come to her house to cook outdoors and in the late afternoon they'd gathered together to play a nice game of croquet. Leota's yard was the only place large enough to set up the croquet set. Ethel usually won their croquet matches but on this day, for the first time in family history, Leota was winning. It seemed that every time she swung her mallet at the ball it would go sailing straight across the ground and knock Ethel's ball far away from the wire hoops, and Leota's ball would go right on through the hoop. The tension had mounted as the game progressed and Ethel began to accuse Leota of deliberately sabotaging the game. When it became apparent that Leota would win the game on her next turn Ethel fell silent and her small dark eyes squinted to a glare, her short, bubble cut, bleached blond hair seemed to stand on it's end. A thin lipped smile seemed to come on Ethel's face as she stepped up to take her turn. Leota looked up just in time to see the intention in the young girl's eyes and the swing of the mallet to the ball which was aimed directly at her feet. That ball had smacked Leota's ankle so hard that it had lifted her completely off the ground and when she'd landed squarely on her thin behind she lost consciousness completely.

Yes, indeed, this was one heck of a summer. When all was brought to the surface, when every coat of paint on every wall of understanding was burned away by the heat of the sun, leaving only the bare wood to defend the hearts of the innocent . . . for the innocence itself was not long for this world.

Leota prayed for her fifteen year old Granddaughter, Ethel. It wasn't so much that Ethel was a bad seed, she did have some wonderful redeeming qualities, but Ethel herself could never be convinced of this and she relied heavily on the dark side of her mind to achieve her goals. It was almost as if she enjoyed the mysteries of that dark side of herself, as though her very survival depended upon hurting others. It was difficult to keep this dark side of Ethel in mind when Leota was around her, for Ethel was the pretty child. The other two had always been a bit gangling and disheveled, Raleigh with his cowlick and his oversized hands and feet, and Kerry, with her mousey brown hair, her freckled nose, and that wirey little body. No, Ethel had never been awkward. She stood in the light of American perfection as a child and now the peaches and cream of a Marilyn Monroe culture, heavy of thigh and light of integrity.

It was Raleigh who brought Leota back to the present from the depths of thought. . . . "Grandmother, may I have a Coke? I sure am thirsty. It must be a 'hunard' and fifty degrees out here."

Leota replied, "I reckon you can have a soda, and Kerry, too. Since you rode all the way over here, I guess you can take Kerry to the park, only for an hour, and if you're late coming back . . . well . . . I guess that Kerry just can't go anymore and that would mean missing that 'titherball' championship day after tommorrow."

"It's tetherball, Leo, not 'titherball'," Kerry cried out. 'Leo' was a nick name that Kerry had given Leota some years back, though she rarely used it anymore, it was too personal in it's connotation and Kerry was trying to become very formal this summer. Raleigh and Ethel possessed the gift of being formal, of keeping secrets, of being separate entities. Kerry would never be formal and she would never learn to keep her secrets.

"Well, whatever kind of ball it is, if you're not back to this house in one hour, you're not gonna be a-playin' it. Do you understand that, Miss Kerry?" Leota asked.

Kerry mumbled, "Yes, ma'am."

Raleigh returned from the house with two cold bottles of pop. Leota picked up her cane and followed the two up the driveway to the street. They waved goodbye in unison and Leota watched them fade into the haze of the pavement, the cheerful patter of their childhood conversations slipping farther and farther behind the roar of airplanes taking off and landing at the airport just behind Leota's property.

Leota thought that perhaps it had been a blessing in disguise that Edgar had passed on so young in his life. If he'd lived to see what had become of their only child, his pride and joy, Julie, it would've killed him anyway. Julie had divorced her husband, Jeff, some five years ago and now she was dating this whimpy real estate salesman who'd moved down here from Boston. He was just as worthless as most of the Easterners Leota had ever come across . . . always thinking he had the upper hand on the Texans . . . always talking about how stupid most Texans were. Why, he even made fun of the way Julie talked, saying that where he came from the word 'yes' only had one syllable. His name was Lester and as far as Leota was concerned, Lester was the one who talked funny. Half the time Leota couldn't understand what the man was saying and the other half of the time she wished she hadn't understood. Lester certainly was a spineless little weasle with a sharp tongue, always flapping his jaws about 'niggers' and inflicting his views on the children which is where Leota drew the line of decency. As far back as Leota could recall in their family, she couldn't remember even one family member who'd been that wrong and that opinionated. If fact, conversations on that subject of racial issues just didn't come up much. . . . Oh, she knew it was there, surrounding her, the ghosts of ignorance rattling the closet doors in the community . . . but that word . . . that word 'nigger' . . . it's vileness seemed to catch in Leota's throat and leave a bad taste on her tongue like some foreign language that she couldn't pronounce correctly and hoped she never would.

Julie, of course, was blind to all of the flaws in Lester's character. Jeff had married a short little redheaded woman named Louise last February and Julie's main interest in dating Lester was to prove to Jeff that, by God, she could start over again just as he had.

Leota hadn't gotten to know Louise yet. She and Jeff had had a rather large wedding in Austin and hadn't invited the children to attend. Kerry had cried for days and days about missing the wedding and refused to see her Daddy for several weeks. Ethel was the only one of the three who spent much time getting to know Lousie and the two of them were thick as fleas. Kerry remained aloof towards her Daddy and Leota feared that the bond between the two of them was forever broken. Leota was sad over the dilemma as Jeff was such a good hearted man and Kerry was the only one of the three who had inherited his physical characteristics. As a wedding gift for Jeff and Louise, Raleigh and Ethel had put their allowances together and bought a nice little bud vase made of many bright colors of hand blown glass. Kerry had refused to chip in on the enterprise and had, in fact, broken the very same bud vase just a few weeks later playing with a large rubber ball in the house. Ethel claimed that Kerry'd done it on purpose and for once in her life Leota suspected that Ethel was right. But in looking closely at the situation, Leota still couldn't fault Kerry for being vindictive and breaking the bud vase, even though Ethel had made much to-do about that vase. . . . There's still a big difference between the breaking of a bud vase and assaulting your Grandmother with a croquet ball.

Leota's house was located on East Fifty-first Street in Northeast Austin. When she and Edgar had bought the property back in 1943 it had been considered to be a place in the country. They were the first family to move in on the street once the road was paved and were the only ones around for about six months . . . then Thomas Evans moved in to the place next door. Their houses had looked might peculiar for several years . . . being the only two houses on the block and sitting side by side like they were. Thomas Evans was a negro man who worked for the city electric company. He and Edgar had worked together year after year on each other's property. Thomas' wife's name was Effie. She was a very quiet woman and once a week she and Leota would get together in Leota's kitchen over a hot cup of coffee to play gin rummy.

Developers had bought up all the land around that area by 1949 and began throwing up these ugly tack houses and chopping down all the trees. They renamed the area 'Windsor Park' and young couples, all with three to four children, a year or so apart in age, began moving in and setting up neighborhood beautification committees and petitioning the city to allow them to remove their roadside mailboxes and have their mail delivered right up the the front porch. Most of these folks came from up North and they were down here in Texas to start new lives for themselves. Most of them joined the First Baptist Church so that their being Yankees wouldn't be quite so conspicuous. Edgar, God rest his soul, who didn't give a hoot for the Baptists, just wished they'd all pack up and move back North, East, West, or wherever the hell else they'd come from. Leota and Effie pretty much ignored the entire bunch of them and the only socializing either of them participated in was still that once a week gin rummy game.

In 1954, while Edgar was ill and tired to the bone, one of the so called neighborhood leaders named Arnold Davis began creating a stir about Thomas and Effie. He'd convinced most of the folks in the neighborhood that property value was gonna go straight to hell if Thomas and Effie didn't move out. Well, Edgar just figured that most of these folks went along with Arnold so they could be accepted into the neighborhood association because any fool with eyes could see that he and Thomas had the only decent places in the whole area. One cold night in November, Arnold Davis called up Edgar and asked if he and some of the other folks could come by and have a chat with him. Edgar told 'em to come on and get it over with while Leota slipped next door and brought Thomas and Effie over to their place. Leota fixed some nice hot chocolate and the four of them waited patiently for the rap of Arnold's fat fingers on the door.

Leota counted ten of them lined up on the front porch, all of them men, all of them with their chests poked out, and all of them seeming pretty damn proud of themselves. Arnold had come up with a plan where they could take up a collection around the neighborhood, enough for a down payment, and they'd offer to buy Thomas' place from him. Well, Edgar let them finish their speeches, mostly Arnold's speeches, and then he told them how stupid they were . . . that if any one of them could make their places look half as good as Thomas' place he might be inclined to agree with them, but for the time being, Thomas Evans was the best neighbor he'd ever had . . . as an afterthought he added that if he caught any of them snooping around his property, or Thomas', they'd be pickin' rock salt out of their behinds.

When it was all over, they'd all hung their heads and shuffled off to their own houses, except for Arnold, who was left standing in the cold of Edgar's porch when the front door slammed in his face. Effie told Leota that she thought Edgar's speech was just as good as any Abraham Lincoln had ever given and definitely more to the point.

Effie was gone now, she'd caught pneumonia last Fall and passed on soon after. Thomas lived alone now just as Leota now lived alone and though they never spoke of their sorrow, they still shared this same loneliness.

"How'd do, Leota. How's that foot doin' today?" said Thomas Evans, standing at the gate leading to Leota's patio.

Leota answered, "Oh, hello Thomas, I didn't hear your car pull in. Doctor says this foot's gonna be just fine when the cast comes off, I've only got two more weeks of this miserable thing left to go. As long as I can keep up with Kerry and keep a cold glass of iced tea in my hand it's not so bad. With all this heat that cast sure does itch like crazy. Raleigh fixed me up with this gadget that's s'posed to be a back scratcher but it works just fine as a foot scratcher, too. Are ya keepin' cool over there at your place?"

"Well, it's mighty hard to keep cool these days. You know it hasn't rained here in forty-two days. Weatherman gives the same forecast night after night. Say, Leota, you wouldn't happen to have another glass of that tea floatin' around, would you?" Thomas asked.

"Why certainly, Thomas. . . . 'Long as you don't mind fixin' it for yourself. Kerry brewed up a big batch of tea this mornin'."

Thomas came through the gate wrestling with Dodger whose canine eyes were fixed on Jangles, now patroling his territory beneath the clothesline. Thomas won this round with Dodger and the old dog flopped down just inside the gate to wait for Thomas' return. As Thomas climbed the steps to Leota's back door, he couldn't help but wonder when the day was gonna come that old Dodger would get his wish and catch that Jangles on the wrong side of the fence. The prospect of nabbing that mean little rooster seemed to be about the only highlight in Dodger's life now-a-days.

After Thomas had fixed himself a tall glass of iced tea and added a nice sprig of mint from Leota's flower bed, he settled himself on the bottom step of the stairs. Thomas was a very tall man with a light complexion and short cropped salt and peppered hair. He pulled off his sport coat and folded it neatly beside him feeling much better there in the shade in his white short sleeved shirt. Leota's black cat, Spooky, came up and sat beside his feet waiting for attention.

"Where is that little joy in life, Kerry, this afternoon?" Thomas asked.

"Oh, Raleigh came by here just a while ago and carried her off to the park. Seems they're having some sort of ballgame down there day after tomorrow and Raleigh seems to think that Kerry's indispensable. They went down there to practice up for the big game. I was glad to see Kerry go, even if she was s'posed to take care of the garden this afternoon, that child's been nothing but a damned nuisance all day long and it's just too bad that they don't allow roosters at the park or I'd have sent Jangles with 'em."

They sat in silence now, Thomas and Leota, not missing the sound of conversation and neither feeling uncomfortable with the loss for words. They were both accustomed to the quiet, both content with their solitude and neither in need of anything more than their cold wet iced tea and the shade of Leota's sycamore tree. They had both loved and lost, both held and been held by the treasures of passion and both would bathe in the loss of harmony for the rest of their lives.

The airplanes were thundering overhead as Raleigh and Kerry neared the park. Raleigh had his hand buried in his right pocket, jangling two dimes, a nickel, and a penny which were the remains of his weekly two dollar allowance.

"You know, Ethel got her driver's license day before yesterday and mother says she's gonna leave her the car one day a week till school starts again. Ethel says she's not takin' me anywhere cause she wouldn't be caught dead with her jerky little brother in the car," Raleigh said.

"Who?" Kerry asked.

"Your sister, Ethel. Gee wiz, Kerry, you've only been gone a week. Did you forget your sister, Ethel?" Raleigh screamed.

He'd stopped there on the side of the road and put his hands on his hips waiting for a reply from Kerry . . .

"No, I didn't forget my sister Ethel, I just couldn't hear you that's all. It's the planes and your mumbling. What's this about Ethel?"

Raleigh fell back in step with Kerry again and the jangle of the coins automatically followed.

Raleigh began again, "As I was saying, Ethel got her driver's license day before yesterday and she says that even though Mother's gonna leave her the car one day a week for the rest of the summer, she's still not gonna take me anywhere."

Kerry replied, "Oh, Raleigh, who wants to ride in that dirty old Volkswagen with the heater stuck on in the middle of the summer anyway? . . . All Ethel wants to do is go park it down at the Holiday House and pretend she's eating french fries while she flirts with those creepy guys that hang out down there. If ya asked me I'd say you'd get to where you're going a lot faster on your bicycle than you would a-riding in that silly old car with Ethel."

"Well, nobody asked you, ya little smart ass. I got plenty of places I'd like to go this summer, you just wait and see, Mother'll make Ethel take me there and you're not gonna get to go! And by the way, the words out on the playground that you ain't got a chance of winning that tetherball championship 'cause there's a new kid in the neighborhood who can play ten times better'n you can."

The two of them stood facing one another on the edge of the playground, Raleigh kicking the dirt up on his sneakers and Kerry, who stood at least a foot and a half shorter than him, pushing the bangs out of her eyes so she could look up and glare at him. They had the same hands on hips posture . . . something they'd picked up from their Mother, who'd inherited the same stance from Leota . . . both had the same small pugged nose, though Kerry's was freckled and peeling and still carried just a tiny smudge of white zinc oxide left over from this morning's swimming lessons. . . .

"Just who says so, Raleigh Foster?" Kerry asked.

"Why, he says so, that new kid, Fletcher, he says he can beat you. He told Buster Ferguson yesterday that he'd seen you play and you weren't big enough to last past the first serve in any match with him!"

Kerry stomped off towards the recreation office and yelled back over her shoulder at Raleigh . . .

"I'm gonna go sign up right now for the play-offs and we'll just see who wins this championship . . . and if you see that new kid, Fletcher, snoopin' around this playground, you come over and point him out to me. Okay, Raleigh?"

President John F. Kennedy was very big on physical fitness, especially in organized fitness programs for young people. The City of Austin had followed up with his policies by developing park activities that included games and facilities for children of all ages. There were more parks located within the city of Austin than any other city in the nation, and with each park came the children with pride and sporting spirit to lick the socks off of everything in sight. The neighborhood park in which Raleigh and Kerry engaged themselves was named Bartholomew Park. It was nestled between two gently rolling hills with a creek running through the center which created a dividing line between the playgrounds and the Olympic size swimming pool. In the center of the playground there was a covered basketball court and just behind it a stone building which housed the recreation office. The park counselor for Bartholomew this year was a young University of Texas physical fitness major named Stanley Grant. The kids all called him Stan. He was a lean, darkly tanned, tow-headed young man of twenty who doubled as the swimming coach in the mornings.

Stan took special interest in the activities of Kerry and Raleigh Foster as their sister Ethel was about the prettiest peach at the park. Ethel and her best friend, Wanda, would come to the pool every morning and sachet around in their two piece bathing suits. Ethel loved to get the goods on any trouble that Raleigh and Kerry were into, so Stan's keeping up with the two of them gave him a good excuse to get to talk to Ethel.

Kerry thought that Stan looked just like Troy Donahue and she occasionally fancied herself as looking like Sandra Dee. She was under the unfortunate impression that Stan paid so much attention to her because he had a crush on her. If she'd only known that it was her sister, Ethel, that Stan was interest in she could've saved herself a lot of daydreaming and a bushel full of embarrassment. All the other kids knew that Kerry was smitten with Stan, they snickered at her as she strolled past them to enter the recreation office.

One of Kerry's classmates from school, Missy Krandel, sat at the desk stapling some kind of park flyers together. Kerry didn't care for Missy Krandel who was constantly combing her curly blond hair. Most of the time Missy and a few other little girls from the neighborhood sat out behind the recreation office playing with their Barbie dolls. They very rarely took part in any physical activities. So, here was Missy, sitting behind Stan's desk with her crisp little blue sundress and spotless white sandals. . . .

Kerry asked, "What are you doin' in here? . . . Do you know where I'm supposed to sign up for the tetherball championship?"

"In answer to your nosey question; I'm getting these flyers together for Stan. There's gonna be a sock hop here on the basketball court next Friday night and Stan's letting Sherry and me deliver these flyers that tell all about it to every house in the neighborhood . . . and I don't know a thing about any stupid tetherball championship. . . . If you want to ask Stan about it he's sitting down by the bridge at the creek with your sister, Ethel, and her ugly friend, Wanda!"

Missy continued on with the stapling and Kerry replied on her way out the door . . .

"Well, you know the only reason Stan asked you to do those flyers was because I wasn't here!"

Ethel was observing Stan examine her new driver's license. He'd just been explaining to her and Wanda how you could change the birthdate on your license by taking a razor blade and carefully cutting the numbers you needed out of the license and replacing them to make your birthdate added up to look like you were over twenty-one, then all you had to do was take it downtown to Woolworths and run it through a machine they had down there that coated it with plastic, that way no one could tell the difference, except your parents. The best way to avoid your parents finding it and taking it away from you was to tell them you lost it, then all you had to do was go down with your parents and get a new one with the right birthdate. Every kid who was under twenty-one knew that trick but Ethel had sat quietly and listened to Stan, pretending that this was the most ingenious plan she'd ever heard. She looked up to see Kerry coming towards them.

Ethel said, "Oh, here comes that little twirppy sister of mine. Honestly, she follows me around like a shadow."

As Kerry came within hearing distance Ethel screamed out . . .

"Kerry does Grandmother know where you are?"

"She most certainly does, Raleigh came by her house and he walked me down here. It's none of your bee's wax anyway," Kerry answered.

"Well, what do you want?" Ethel asked impatiently.

"I didn't come down here to talk to you, I came to ask Stan a question. Is that your new driver's license, Ethel?" Kerry asked.

"Well, it certainly isn't yours," Ethel said.

"Oh, go blow your nose, Ethel. Stan, do you know where I should sign up for the tetherball championship day after tomorrow?" Kerry asked.

Stan said, "That new boy, Fletcher, has the list. I told him he could be in charge of signing everyone up. He's over there in the tetherball area, he knows who you are, just tell him you want to sign up. If you were wanting to play today you're gonna have a long wait . . . tetherball's been mighty popular today."

Kerry headed back towards the basketball court. She couldn't believe that Stan was enjoying the company of someone as stupid as her sister, Ethel. The tetherball area was just on the other side of the basketball court and by the time Kerry got there, there were at least nine kids sitting on the grass waiting for their turn to play. There was a tall dark haired boy on the winner's side of the tetherball circle and Kerry figured this must be that new kid, Fletcher. There isn't really such a thing as the winner's side of the circle in tetherball, that was just a rule that they'd thought up there at Bartholomew . . . the winner got to have the side of the circle where the sun was behind him, the challenger took the side where the sun would be right in their eyes. It never seemed quite fair to Kerry, but then she was usually on the side where the sun was behind her.

There was something peculiar in the way that Fletcher played tetherball, Kerry couldn't quite figure it out, but while watching him play Kerry kept thinking he was facing the wrong direction. The challenger in this game was Buster Ferguson. Buster was Raleigh's best friend. He was a wirey little boy with red hair, thousands of freckles, and a space between his front teeth that you could've driven a fleet of trucks through. Buster had become known throughout the neighborhood as a trouble maker, so much so, that Raleigh's mother had forbidden Raleigh to play with Buster as the two of them together spelled 'double trouble'.

"Fletcher's a lefty," Raleigh whispered to Kerry.

Kerry said, "I'm not stupid, Raleigh . . . any moron can see that."

"I was just trying to give you some tips on how to beat him, you don't have to bite my head off," Raleigh said, straining to keep his voice at a whisper.

With one more loud thump of the ball the game was over and Fletcher had won again.

"Excuse me, I hate to interrupt, but Stan told me I could sign up for the tetherball play-off. Is your name Fletcher?" Kerry asked.

As Fletcher turned around to address Kerry, she became very self-conscious of the fact that her hair hadn't been combed since eight o'clock this morning, her left sneaker was untied, and her tee-shirt had a red stain on it which was all that remained of the cherry popsicle she'd had after lunch.

"You must be Raleigh's sister, Kerry. Raleigh was just telling me what a mean game of tetherball you play. I left the clipboard with the list of players over there, by the water fountain. Just sign anytime you want to," Fletcher said.

Fletcher turned to take on the next challenger in line while Kerry bent down to tie her shoe lace. Something felt different here on the playground, something Kerry wasn't sure she liked. As she walked to the water fountain in search of the clipboard her steps felt heavy and awkward, like they didn't belong with the rest of her, as if she didn't belong with the rest of anyone.

When Kerry located the clipboard by the water fountain she discovered that some stupid kid had splashed water on it and she could barely read the three names that were listed on the page . . . Fletcher Seibel, Buster Ferguson, and Raleigh Foster. There was a pencil tied by a string to the top of the clipboard and Kerry added her name below Raleigh's in as neat a script as she could. She'd decided she was going to tell Stan that Fletcher had left the clipboard by the water fountain and that it had gotten all wet, but not today . . . maybe tomorrow . . . right now she just wanted to go home to Leo's house and watch 'The Uncle Jay Show', the clock on the side of the recreation office read 4:15, the program came on at four. The show had about fifteen or twenty minutes of Uncle Jay talking with the children who were on the show that day for their birthdays, after that there'd be a half hour of cartoons. If Kerry left now she could still catch the last cartoon.

Kerry walked along thinking about Fletcher . . . he had the nicest face, Kerry even supposed that he was handsome. His eyes reminded her of her Grandmother's eyes, though his were brown. It was the way he looked right through her, as though he could read what she was thinking. She'd seen a picture of a dolphin in a book her Daddy had given her about life in the ocean and that's exactly where she'd seen those eyes before . . . yes, Fletcher had eyes like a dolphin . . . eyes that were full of kindness and knowledge, as though the whole world had passed before them once and this was the second time around.

"Wait up, Kerry," Raleigh yelled, "I'll walk you back, I gotta pick up my bicycle at Grandmother's. What's-a-matter? Don't ya feel well?" Raleigh asked.

Kerry said, "I feel just fine. I'm just not in the mood for company."

"I'm not company, Kerry, I'm your brother," Raleigh remarked.

"Everybody's company!" Kerry said.

It rained all day the next day. Leota and Kerry sat at the kitchen table and played chinese checkers for most of the morning. At lunch time Leota fixed Kerry a mayonnaise and pickle sandwich, which was her very favorite, and the two of them sat down together in the living room to watch 'As the World Turns' on television. Kerry, who was prone to falling asleep after lunch, stuck by her normal routine and with the gentle sound of the rain, slept throughout the entire afternoon. Leota used the quiet time to get some phone calls made, she hadn't had a decent phone conversation since Kerry had moved in . . . the phone line remained busy for three solid hours. . . .

Outside the world was sleeping just like Kerry. The lives of those in Central Texas were simple and uncluttered. Thunder roared across the sky and finding no ears listening hard enough to deaden it's rumble, it echoed off the roof tops of a nation fast-asleep. President Kennedy, acting upon the advice of his cabinet members, was sending troops; young human beings with feelings and minds of their own . . . now dehumanized, sanitized, and stripped of their separate identities by being labeled simply as troops, far across the world to Southeast Asia. The younger brothers and sisters of these same 'troops' would mindlessly, even jubilantly donate their youthful energies to the President's physical fitness programs which in the end would prepare their bodies, never their minds, to becoming 'troops' themselves.

This would be a summer not unlike any other summer, but it would be the last summer in which a nation and it's citizens slept in innocence undisturbed by the screams in the distance, not so very far from home . . . not far enough to be totally ignored.

The sky continued to overcast the next morning but no more rain fell. Leota made Kerry stay home from swimming lessons that morning as Leota was afraid for any child to be in the water when the sky was threatening rain. By noon the sun began burning the clouds away, much to Kerry's disappointment. The tetherball championship was scheduled to begin at one and Kerry felt doomed to lose before she ever set foot on the playground. Raleigh and Ethel both came by to have lunch, this was Ethel's day to have the car, and Leota winced in anxiety as Ethel backed the Volkswagen out of the drive with Raleigh in the passenger seat and Kerry in the back, leaning forward with her elbows resting on the backs of the front bucket seats. The sound of the radio came blasting forth from the windows of the car and Leota could hear Ethel screaming at Kerry at the top of her lungs . . .

"Kerry, just sit back and SHUT-UP!" Ethel screamed.

Leota watched in dismay as they drove off. It was enough to make her cry . . . the way her grandchildren treated each other. It wasn't so much the way Kerry and Raleigh nagged at one another but the hostility that Ethel could inspire between all of them. Ethel seemed to take great pride in keeping the entire family riled up. Leota herself hadn't been very close to any of her brothers and sisters for several years. Her sister, Cora, was the only member of her family that Leota would even bother to give the time of day, but Cora lived in Odessa and that seemed like a million miles away to Leota. Leota understood the tenderness in young hearts and the unwillingness of siblings to respect this in one another. The young would test their strengths against their siblings, they would tear at one another until the wounds they had created were too deep and mangled to repair. The scars they would leave behind within each other's hearts would heal in thin jagged lines and would rip wide open again with only the slightest bit of provocation. Leota understood all of this.

After making two swings by the Holiday House drive in, Ethel drove the children to the park. Kerry kept raising a ruckus in the back seat about Raleigh and her missing the tetherball championships while Ethel reminded her that she (Ethel) was the one wearing the watch. She was actually looking forward to watching the game as Stan would be there supervising the little brats, making sure they didn't kill each other over some stupid tetherball game. Ethel wasn't about to sit through this game for nothing . . . she was hoping Stan would ask her to be his date for the sock-hop next Friday. She'd told her mother about Stan last night and her mother had told her Stan was too old for her. Well, Ethel figured that what her mother didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

The play-off schedule was arranged so that each player got ample opportunity to face the others. Though the championships had been posted since the beginning of the week only four contestants had signed up for the match. None of the other children, who normally flocked around the tetherball area, wanted to play against Fletcher or Kerry, especially Kerry who was known for pulling some dirty tricks during tetherball games. Kerry and Buster were scheduled to play first, Stan had taken special care to avoid a game between Raleigh and Kerry until later in the day as Raleigh had a tendency to lose his temper with Kerry which usually led to a wrestling match where Kerry didn't stand a chance. The whistle blew promptly at one p.m. with Kerry on the side facing the sun. A crowd of children gathered around the area and even though most of them didn't like Kerry, Buster was about the most unpopular kid in the whole neighborhood, so the majority of them were rooting for Kerry. Kerry had managed to get the rope the ball was attached to wrapped halfway down the pole on her very first serve. The object of the game was to get the rope wound around the pole all the way to the ball by slugging the ball in your assigned direction as hard as you could with your fist. The best tactic in doing this, in order to avoid your competitor from knocking the ball back before you could gain a wrap of the rope around the pole, was to aim the ball over their head. Kerry was a master at this, her only drawback was the rule stating that you must not step over the line dividing the circle in half, Kerry Foster had a difficult time keeping herself on her side of the circle. Buster managed to get two hits on the ball before Kerry belted it a good one and sent the ball flying around the pole all the way to the top of the ball.

Kerry walked away as the victor for the first match and proceeded to sit down in the grass to watch the next game which was between Raleigh and Buster.

Their game went on and on with the two of them occasionally stopping to double up in laughter over some mistake the other one had made. Kerry was exhausted by the time their game was finished with Buster winning the match. The games went on in this order with each player playing the others, regardless of who won or lost, until Kerry and Raleigh entered the circle to start their match. On the one hand, Raleigh, who had already lost that one bout with Buster, wanted to beat Kerry, who hadn't lost a match yet, so that they would be even, but on the other hand he was inclined to let Kerry win so she could have a chance at winning the entire match by playing Fletcher, who was also thus far undefeated. Raleigh took great pride in loving his sister sometimes and decided that though he was inclined to let Kerry win, she wouldn't appreciate the gesture, so he opted to play the best damn game of tetherball he'd ever played. It was a heated battle between Raleigh and Kerry, with Kerry actually getting penalized two whole wraps around the pole for tripping Raleigh, causing him to fall flat on his face in the dirt. The match between them lasted a full ten minutes and all the children in the crowd became bored . . . the children yelling out for Raleigh to "just go ahead and knock it down Kerry's throat." Kerry had lost the sympathies of the crowd earlier by tripping Raleigh. Kerry did come out the winner and the anticipation for the match the entire playground had been waiting for filled the air with excitement. Stan called for a ten minute break before the last play-off, figuring all of them could use some time to cool off a bit . . . after all, the games had gone so fast that he'd hardly had time to flirt with Ethel who was standing by the water fountain helping Raleigh wash the dirt off of a scrape on his chin which he'd acquired during his match with Kerry. Stan gradually worked his way over to Ethel, not wanting to appear too anxious about striking up a conversation with her . . . he decided to address Raleigh first . . .

"That was quite a spill you took there, Raleigh. Are you okay now?" Stan asked.

"Oh, he'll be alright, it's just a scratch. . . . Honestly, Raleigh you're such a baby sometimes. . . . Uh, Stan, how are the plans coming for the sock-hop?" Ethel asked.

Raleigh looked up with exasperation at his sister, Ethel, thinking to himself that it was a wonder he'd ever learned to talk at all with Ethel always buttin' in and answering for him. Raleigh like to give some thought to his answers when being spoken to, he liked to leave a short pause between each person's statements, but when he was around Ethel he never got the chance to open his mouth as she was very quick to speak and very rarely had anything thoughtful at all to say . . . in fact Ethel talked constantly when she wasn't flirting with the guys and Raleigh couldn't think of much of anything she'd ever said that held any importance to him. With this in mind, Raleigh decided that this was a good time to go have a chat with Kerry about that tripping business.

Stan spoke up, "The plans for the sock-hop are coming along just fine. One of the DJ's from K-N-O-W radio is going to come spin the records from seven till nine. Are you planning to come?"

"You know I'd like to, but I'd just hate to come all by myself, Wanda has to go out of town that weekend," Ethel hinted.

"Why, Ethel, I'd just be glad for you to come sit with me, maybe dance a few dances together. I'd consider it an honor," Stan said.

"I'll just count on that then Stan. Thank you for offering . . . it's so nice of you to offer!" Ethel said.

With her goal achieved, Ethel excused herself and headed straight for Wanda's house, who was not, by the way, scheduled to be out of town that weekend but, if Ethel had her way she would be now! Ethel continued to congratulate herself on her date with Stan all the way to Wanda's house, only pausing once to scold herself for having allowed Stan to get her so flustered that she'd stammered a bit during their conversation at the water fountain.

Kerry and Fletcher took their places in the tetherball circle, with Fletcher losing the coin toss and ending up on the side with the sun in his eyes. The whistle blew while Kerry was still reminding herself that any and all eye contact with Fletcher was to be avoided. Fletcher had first serve since he'd gotten the bad side of the circle. He sent the ball flying around the pole thinking he'd get a good start with the first couple of wraps but Kerry caught it with her feet just inside her center line and sent the ball back around the pole with a loud smack before it could go the second wrap. The game continued on in this fashion, with Fletcher being penalized once for stepping over the center line which Kerry was being careful to avoid. They'd been at it for five minutes with the rope now wrapped three quarters of the way down the pole in Fletcher's favor, when Fletcher hit the ball exceptionally high in the air. Kerry ran to the center line and leaped into the air to retrieve it while Fletcher also rushed for the center line, fearing she just might succeed in doing just that. He figured that if he got close enough, he could slam the ball over Kerry's short little noggin which would surely win the game for him. Sure enough, Kerry did jump high enough to hit the ball but upon landing her feet found purchase not on the ground but on Fletcher' feet, knocking Kerry off balance and throwing her small body into the steel center pole. Fletcher went sprawling as well, smacking his head solidly on the hard dirt. The last thing he remembered hearing was the crack of Kerry's wrist as it landed sharply against the pole. . . . The game was over.

Julie was called at her office in a downtown architectural firm where she was the bookkeeper. Leota had been so distraught while talking with Julie on the telephone that it took several attempts on Julie's part to find out exactly what was going on. Ethel, adding to Julie's confusion on hand, had the car and was nowhere to be found. Julie had finally called a cab . . . she rode the distance from downtown Austin to Bartholomew chain smoking Winston cigarettes, barking directions to the cab driver, and cursing herself for ever having been so stupid as to divorce a man like Jeff Foster. When Julie arrived on the scene of the accident Kerry was sitting up on a picnic table by the basketball court. Stan had gotten a bag of ice from a concerned mother in one of the houses nearby and Kerry was holding the ice on an already swelling wrist. A dark haired boy sat beside Kerry on the table alternating between patting her on the back to console her and massaging the back of his own head . . . he introduced himself to Julie simply as being Fletcher, while the small delicate woman standing beside him introduced herself as being Fletcher's mother, Millie Seibel. Since Ethel was nowhere to be found, Millie offered to drive them all down to the emergency room at Brachenridge County Hospital.

Kerry was quite familiar with the emergency room, considering she was somewhat accident prone, she'd had several opportunities to visit the place. She was fairly at ease sitting in the waiting area with Julie, Fletcher, and his mother Millie Seibel. Fletcher was most impressed with Kerry's knowledge of the whereabouts of such things as the Coke machine, the water fountain, and the restrooms.

While waiting for the arrival of the family physicians, Leota came hobbling in on the arm of Thomas Evans, which in itself seemed quite peculiar to Millie Seibel since she had only become acquainted with Kerry and her mother, Julie, an hour ago and wasn't anticipating meeting the grandparents this afternoon. She had in fact been engaged in her weekly game of mahjong when the call had come in that Fletcher had had some sort of accident at the park. Millie Seibel was an extremely patient and unassuming woman in her early forties, Fletcher was her youngest child, she and her husband, Rubin, having decided six years after their second daughter was born to try again for a boy. She was accustomed to Fletcher's minor accidents as was Julie to Kerry's so she sat calmly in the hard plastic chair of the waiting area listening in while Leota berated Julie for not having called her back when she couldn't locate Ethel with the car. Thomas Evans eventually directed Leota to a chair beside Kerry which freed him to go in search of the men's room. Leota had flagged him down just as he was pulling into his driveway after work, waving her cane in the air and hollering . . .

"Thomas, we got to get over to the park . . . just put that Buick in reverse . . . Lord, Kerry's had an accident and Julie's stuck downtown cause that no good Ethel's out galavantin' in the car. . . . I declare that child's gonna be the death of me yet. . . ."

The sum total of injuries was actually very small considering the impact. Kerry had definitely broken the wrist and a cast was placed on her arm which stopped just below the elbow. Fletcher was relatively unscathed, escaping with only a bump on the head and a bruised instep on his right foot. The accident did manage to open a few doors, with Millie and Julie becoming close friends, and Ethel's car privileges being revoked for two whole weeks. Kerry went back home with Julie for a few days before returning to Leota's. While she was at home she discovered that the Seibels had moved in to the old Jackson house which was only two doors down from the Fosters. Fletcher and Kerry became inseparable. Fletcher would ride his bicycle to Leota's every afternoon where he and Kerry would sit out in the shade and play card games. Kerry knew more card games and more ways to cheat in each of them than any other girl he'd ever met. Leota was becoming quite fond of Fletcher, she thought he had the finest manners of any eleven year old any of the grandchildren had brought around to her house.

In the evenings around dusk, Leota and Kerry would sit out on the front porch, Kerry with her arm in her cast and Leota with her foot in hers propped up on the porch railing. Leota would be turning fifty-eight on August fifth which was only a few days away. Her birthday would be on a Sunday this year, she'd always liked having her birthday fall on a nice peaceful Sunday. Julie had made plans for all of them to go downtown that day to eat lunch at the Picadilly Cafeteria and afterwards to a movie at the State Theater there on Congress Avenue. Leota was especially looking forward to the movie as it was a new Gregory Peck film called, To Kill a Mockingbird. In the meantime, the children had planned to attend a sock-hop down at the park tomorrow evening. Julie had made arrangements for Kerry to ride with Fletcher's family to the park. Leota was counting on having a nice quite evening alone.

The basketball court was lit up like a carnival with colored patio lights when Kerry and Fletcher arrived at the park at seven. It was just beginning to get dark outside and a cool breeze was blowing in from the southeast. The DJ from the radio station was enthusiastically introducing each song he played hoping to entice the boys and girls, who had segregated themselves to separate sides of the court, to dance with each other.

He was introducing an Everly Brothers' song, "Cathy's Clown," as Kerry and Fletcher approached the edge of the court. Fletcher located a place for he and Kerry to sit at one of the picnic tables under the lights and headed off to sign out a checker set from the recreation office.

Some of the mothers had brought Kool Aide and cookies for the children. Mr. Ferguson was the only father who had volunteered to chaperon the event. He stood lurking in the shadows with a flashlight attached to his belt and a walkie-talkie in his hand. Kerry couldn't figure out what good that was going to do him since Mrs. Ferguson was supposed to be manning the other walkie-talkie and she was off chatting with Missy Krandel's mother over at the refreshment table, leaving the walkie-talkie with Mr. Ferguson's froggy voice barking out of it on the cement ledge just behind Kerry and Fletcher's table.

With Julie absent from the scene, Raleigh had taken the opportunity to team up with his pal, Buster. They were betting against the odds that Ethel was too preoccupied with the date she wasn't supposed to have with Stan Grant to pay much mind to the two of them.

It was a wonderful summer's evening with laughter and music floating across the playground. The sounds of lighthearted conversations seemed to rent the air with excitement. Leota stepped out on her front porch and could hear the faint sound of the Everly Brothers' harmony drifting down from the park all the way to her house.

For Kerry and Fletcher it had been a most enjoyable evening under the stars. They had stayed at their table all evening playing checkers. It was the first time in recorded history that Kerry had been given a good report by the chaperons. The same could not be said of Raleigh and Ethel.

Raleigh and Buster had taken it upon themselves to harass the devil out of Stan and Ethel. First it was water balloons, then it was some fire crackers left over from the fourth of July . . . Mr. Ferguson had confiscated those. Then it was spit balls . . . manufactured from the paper flyers at the park and delivered through the very straws the mothers had brought for the Kool Aide.

Raleigh liked to aim his spit balls directly at the lobe of Stan's ear. For awhile Stan and Ethel thought they were simply being pestered by the horse flies that always hovered over the creek until Ethel took a direct hit by a spit ball on the cheek. Stan had stashed a six-pack of beer in the cold water along the edge of the creek that afternoon. He struck a bargain with Raleigh and Buster, giving them one beer each and four cigarettes as a bribe to get them to leave he and Ethel alone.

Buster got caught showing off his ability to smoke a cigarette right off the bat by Missy Krandel's mother and he in turn spilled the beans about Raleigh and the cans of beer.

Ethel and Stan were caught 'making-out' in the backseat of Stan's 1957 Chevrolet by Mr. Ferguson's flashlight which in itself wouldn't have been such a bad offense except for the fact that Ethel was naked from the waist up and Stan had forgotten to zip his fly. . . .

Leota's phone was ringing once again, except this time, thank the Lord, Kerry was sound asleep in the front bedroom and had been for a good half hour.

Saturday had been a quiet day around Julie's house with Raleigh confined to his room and Ethel out for a conference with her father. Raleigh was grounded for the rest of the summer. Ethel was to be sent to an all girls private school in the fall. Ethel had driven past the school many times and thanked her lucky stars that she didn't have to go there.

In addition to being condemned to an all girls school, Ethel, who blamed this entire fiasco on Raleigh with his big mouth, was to take Kerry and the big mouth to the library once a week till Christmas. Those two loved to go to the library and they'd spend hours and hours dawdling in there.

Julie had been tempted to cancel their plans to celebrate Leota's birthday tomorrow but this was really the last special event of the summer and she just couldn't do that to Kerry.

On Sunday morning everyone woke early. There were arguments between Raleigh and Ethel over the bathroom which Julie settled by allowing Ethel to use hers in the master bedroom. They all bathed, even Raleigh, who doused his head with a double dose of 'butch wax', and actually wore a tie for the occasion. Julie had bought her mother a dozen roses which were stored in the refrigerator. It was such a beautiful day outside that everyone forgot their angers and everyone put their selfishness aside.

Kerry and Leota woke around nine. Kerry had bought her Grandmother a new pair of slippers for her birthday. She placed them tenderly under the edge of Leota's bed so that she would see them when she got up. Kerry knew very few of the details concerning the activities of Raleigh and Ethel on Friday night, Leota and Julie agreed it was best to keep it that way.

Kerry had chosen to wear a red and white checked skirt that her mother had made her in June, a plain white blouse, white nylon ankle socks with the cuffs folded just so, and her red patent leather shoes. Kerry had washed her hair this morning and decided to leave it down so that it hung clear to her waist and sparkled in the sunlight. Leota came out on the front porch carrying her house keys and pocketbook. She felt as splendid on this fifty-eighth birthday as she had on her first. This summer had made all the difference in the world in Kerry, Leota could feel it, all things pass, all things go by, she was thankful with this change in Kerry she had been allowed to observe. Her own youth had slipped past her unnoticed.

"Happy Birthday, Leo," Kerry said holding a lovely butter cup out to Leota in her hand.

"Oh, thank you Kerry," Leota said.

Julie pulled the Volkswagen up in her mother's driveway and honked the horn three beeps. Ethel jumped out of the car with the roses, which meant that Leota had to unlock the house again to take them inside and put them in water.

Everyone piled into the VW, Leota and Julie in the front seats, Raleigh and Ethel in the back with choice spots by the windows and Kerry sandwiched between them in the middle. Julie hadn't had time to get the car into the shop last week so the heater was still stuck on. The heater vents for the back were on either side of Kerry's feet and before too long Kerry's feet were so hot in those patent leather shoes that she actually thought they'd melted together. She whined a bit and she cried a bit but finally realized that there was absolutely nothing anyone in the car could do to solve the problem. She took it upon herself to create a minor altercation with Raleigh by placing her feet on his side of the floorboard. Ethel, wishing to disassociate herself from the disturbance, ask Leota to turn the radio on. . . .

The radio came on with a start. It was tuned to the local bubble-gum, rock and roll station but the song that was playing was one that was very popular in Austin because it was recorded by a young Austinite named Carolyn Hester. Kerry and Ethel had the record at home, they knew every note and every word by heart. Jeff had taken Kerry and Ethel to hear Miss Hester in concert not long ago. Ethel had been so embarrassed because Kerry had insisted upon getting Miss Hester to sign her program which had meant they'd had to stand in line for some fifteen minutes. The concert had been part of the Austin Boat Show. There had been popcorn, hotdogs, coca-cola, and cotton candy . . . Kerry had gotten her cotton candy tangled up in her pig-tails . . . she had been one sticky mess while waiting in line to get Miss Hester's autograph . . . Jeff had been leery of allowing her to get close to Miss Hester, fearing Kerry would get that sticky cotton candy on Miss Hester's clothing . . . Kerry had sensed Jeff's anxieties and began to cry long silent tears of sorrow for her Father's disappointment in her. Carolyn Hester had mistaken these tears for shyness when Kerry stood before her and had reached down to Kerry to dry the tears away with her own handkerchief. Kerry thought this was absolutely the kindest thing anyone had ever done for her in her whole life.

The song was winding up with the last verse on the radio, everyone in the car was singing along with Carolyn Hester . . .

". . .Oh, the water is wide
I cannot cross over
and neither have, I wings to fly
Give me a boat . . . that can carry two
and both shall row
My love and I . . ."

The jingle for the station then began playing . . . "K-N-O-W fourteen-ninety . . . news on the hour every hour . . . stay tuned for news at noon with Dave Jarret immediately following this word from our sponsors."

. . . Then there was a commercial for Burger Chef Hamburgers . . .

". . . Come to Burger Chef, just a nickel and a dime . . ." went the jingle.

"This is Dave Jarret reporting for K-N-O-W news on the hour. . . . Screen goddess, Marilyn Monroe, was found dead of an apparent overdose of barbiturates this morning in her Los Angeles home. . . ."

"Did you hear that Mother?" Ethel said, "I can't believe it, Marilyn Monroe's dead."

Julie turned the radio off.

"That's such a shame about Marilyn Monroe, you know she had just turned thirty-six in June. Remember when she sang Happy Birthday to President Kennedy on television?" Leota said.

Kerry said, "She always seemed like such a nice lady."

"Oh, what do you know? . . . Ya little moron, you never even met her," Ethel snapped.

Julie said, "Okay . . . that's enough back there!"

The whole car fell silent as Julie searched for a parking space on Congress Avenue. Raleigh had fallen asleep with his head leaning against the window frame and his mouth hanging open. Kerry's feet were truly melted together in that summer heat in the back seat of the Volkswagen with the heater stuck on. Ethel was attempting to powder her nose, having a hard time holding the compact mirror steady with the grinding of gears in stop and go traffic.

The two sisters, Kerry and Ethel, who'd been bound together only moments ago singing harmony to the angelic voice of Carolyn Hester on the radio were now separated by a wall of indifference and though it had been Ethel who had taken notice of the news about the death of Marilyn Monroe . . . Ethel promptly accusing Kerry of not knowing anything about Marilyn Monroe . . . it would also be Ethel who would promptly forget. It would be Kerry who would always remember and it would be Kerry who would always sing that song . . .