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Show 52 sat motionless, in silence, but Andy's cheeks flamed. Mrs. Stulak answered her husband in an angry voice while Veronica looked disdainful, Emil embarrassed, and Vaclav amused. Karl set his fork down without tasting the remaining pirohis, realizing that the argument had something to do with him and the pirohis, even though the whole quarrel took place in Slovak. After shouting something at his father, Andy jumped up from the table, knocking his chair backward. Without bothering to pick it up, he grabbed Karl's arm and said, "Let's get out of here." He flung open the screen door and stomped across the back porch. "Andrej!" his father shouted after him, but Andy kept going, and his father didn't call again. Karl hobbled after Andy all the way to the end of the back yard, where Andy threw himself to the ground underneath the apple tree. "He makes me so dang mad!" Andy raged, his cheeks still flaming. "What was it all about?" Karl asked. "Nothing," Andy snapped. "Absolutely nothing." The pirohis made a heavy lump inside Karl's stomach. "Andy, I know it was about me, so you'd better tell me." "Cheap, stingy old man!" Andy smacked the tree trunk with his fist. As Karl waited for Andy to explain, his worry increased. Occasionally, when he'd visited the Stulaks, he'd said or done something considered ill-bred in the Slovak culture. Always before, the Stulaks had laughed with good humor at Karl's unintentional errors. "You didn't do anything wrong," Andy said, guessing Karl's concern. |