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Show Why We Cry Butch and Fenn Stories 149 I say. I remember everything I've ever said to her. "Playing baseball." A strange impulse rises in me to say to her, "Carol, you know you're one of my favorite people," or some such silly thing, but I will never be able to. Girls are always older than you; you can never catch up enough to know them well. Before I can embarrass myself, Mrs. Aikens takes my arm and says she wants to show me where the soft drinks are. She takes me in the bright yellow utility room right across from the kitchen. "Well?" Mrs. Aikens says. "It's a nice room." "No, Larry, do you know where the soft drinks are?" "In the fridge?" "No!" she laughs and laughs at this as if I'd said "in the hedge". I kind of smile while she has a good time laughing. She recovers and says, "No, no, no. Here they are!" She opens the washing machine lid and I see that it's full of ice. "What would you like?" "Is there any creme soda?" I'm just going along with her all the way. She reaches into the washing machine and extracts a tall bottle of Nehi Creme Soda. "And here's the opener." It's dangling on a string above the washer. "I read about this party trick in Party Hints in the paper. Of course, you have to unplug the washer to be safe!" She bends and shows me the three prong washer plug as proof that we're safe. |
