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Show 39 (extra spacing here) Five rotten days. Five days of petrifying fear, compounded daily because nothing happened. No one came after her, no one called her to the school office, no polite requests appeared in the mailbox. Every night at home she'd walk to the grocery store, call Frog, walk home again. Where was he? Arrested? Would he rat on her? God, how'm I_ gonna get through this? I_ can't eat. I can't sleep. Dyna remembered other times, lots of them,when she'd been driven to call on God, but she'd never been so desperate to have things go her way as she was this time. She thought of Gram making taffy, pulling the hot candy until the handfuls were connected by the merest thread. That's just how she felt-strung out, strained to the limit, her stomach long since at the hard ball stage. Gram didn't make things any better. She spent the whole week in one of her Irish sulks. Dyna couldn't remember the last time they'd had a good laugh. At school Dyna finally gave up. She couldn't concentrate during lectures and couldn't follow discussions, even in sociology class where they were talking about love and sex. She read one page of history three times and still didn't know what the book said. With her luck running true to form, everything came to a head in creative writing Friday morning. They were breaking up into small groups, still trying to decide on a story line for the TV show. Derek Eccles had tried to get her attention twice. Vaguely, she knew this, but she had this other thing on her mind. Sometimes, too, Eccles was an irritation, like a sock hole that slips over your big toe at a time when you can't get at it. She was trying to ignore him, but it didn't work. "Hey, Suggs . . . Suggsy!" he persisted. Then, finally, "Dyna-saur!" That did it! She'd swung around in her desk to face him, breathing dragon fire. She'd been fossilized before, but not this year. Not in this class! |