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Show a 15 "David," she said softly- "So . . . would you mind telling us who David is?" "He's my brother," she said just above a whisper. "Do you love him or hate him?" the Eccles boy spoke up, gathering few laughs as he twisted around to face Lisa. She didn't look amused. Mrs. Simpson watched, not interrupting, and the rest of the class waited. The dark-haired kid behind Lisa cleared his throat noisily, then, looking agitated, began bouncing one knee up and down on the ball of his foot. "Turn around, Eccles," he ordered between clenched teeth. "No, I wanta hear about David." "He's retarded," Lisa said finally. Derek pulled his arm off her desk in slow motion, hunching as if to say "How was I to know?" Debbie Northrup's light-hearted "skiing" and Kevin Obermeyer's "my German shepherd" were the perfect follow-ups. Everyone seemed to relax-everyone else, that is - and Mrs. Simpson went back to the roll. He knew whose turn was coming up next. "Parker," she said, looking over the class, and he figured she'd read his paper after all. Tentatively raising his hand off the desk, he saw. her making the connection between him and the janitor who cleaned blackboards on Fridays only- "Oh, you're Parker!" she said, and she looked delighted. He took hold of the sides of his desk and pulled himself up on his elbows, his fear skyrocketing. "Intensive . . . Care," he said with a great effort. The relief on her face was obvious. She wouldn't ask him to explain that, would she? Mrs. Simpson marked him present with a slow, deliberate X. The class waited for what she might say. "Intensive care, obviously, has the most universal connotations of anything mentioned yet," she commented. "We all react to that. It's a loaded phrase." Parker blinked and looked away. |