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Show on 22-4 "Hiya, Annie," he said. "Hello, Andrew. How are you?" "Well, not awfully good. Had kind of a bad day." In the moonlight, I could see the bandage on his left hand, still wrapped high his arm. He flexed his right hand. "I'm having a bit more surgery next week. Right here." He pressed the area around his mouth on the right side. It was black in the shadows. "I didn't know you were having that still. Father said you'd had it before, but . . ." "Annie, I'll probably have more surgery for years to come. Until they've gotten tired of looking at my ugly face. I know I already am." He sighed and leaned against the back of the chair. He folded his right hand around his left. "Anyway, you'll be going back to school soon. Summer's almost over." "Only one more week." "I used to hate that so. I loved summer, even though I had to work awful hard on the farm. But summer is warm and long and I did have fun." "Didn't you like school? Ever?" Andrew turned his head and looked at me. He was grinning. "Not much. Ever. I didn't like sitting still so long. I always wanted to be up and doing. Helping my dad. I was the only boy, so he needed me." In my mind, I saw again the two men out in the fields, working. I could see Andrew running across the very fields I had seen today. "Where was your school?" "In Stull. A little town, about, oh, three miles from our place. Just a one room place, one teacher, all of us jumbled in together. She didn't have much time for any of us. I learned to read and do my figures and that's about all." He looked at me again. "You're lucky, you know, Annie. You must have better teachers, if you like school so much." |