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Show 10 if he lost attention, or stumbled over words, and after the lessons were over he put the boy in his room. "I have things to do now," he said, "you play in there." The next day when he went back to the basement the boy found, in the corner where he had been sitting the day before, three little blocks of soft pine wood, and a half a sheet of new sandpaper. He sat there all afternoon, sanding the blocks. He could feel the old man move around inside his room, and did not notice the cats. In the morning the father did not leave for work, but made him get dressed in a warm coat, and took him out across the city. They waited for the doctor a long time, but when they finally saw him, the boy did not feel like saying anything, and so he simply sat on the chair and stared at the window. When the doctor asked him to let him know how he felt about his mother, though, the boy stuck out his tongue, and he saw the curl of a smile on his father's face. "You have something you want to say about your mother," said the father when they got home, "don't you?" The boy said nothing. "Pick out one of the bears." The boy looked at him, uncertain. "Just pick one. Any one." The boy chose the third largest. |
