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Show -110- Peppermint Monday Chapter 8: White Crepe Paper Roses The first week in May, Mr- Todd left Ozark County. Nobody knew where he went, not even Mrs. Todd. Some of the old timers said he'd gone to California to sell big time real estate. Of course that was just a rumor, but it satisfied a lot of people's curiosity. For the first time in my life,I felt bad for Renae. I even felt bad for Mrs. Todd. I wondered how well she would survive in her jungle-house without him. I saw Mrs. Todd coming out of the bank looking sad. I didn't know if that meant Mr. Todd had emptied their account or if she was just sad to be alone. Besides that, she was the talk of the town. I knew she had to know everyone was talking, people always did when things like this happened. There would not be quite as much gossip going around this time though, because Mrs. Todd usually spread most of it. Gainesville has the only bank in Ozark County. I guess we were lucky not to have to go too far. I didn't go to the bank often because I seldom put money in and pa wanted us to keep what little we had there. He always referred to our small individual saving accounts as our "tickets to college"- At the moment I wanted to know how big my ticket was with the interest it had added. I knew it was nowhere near enough for college, but then college was not on my mind at the present. I was thinking more on the lines of a dress for the spring dance. It wasn't just any dance either. It was the junior prom. I didn't expect to go to the prom. I knew that was impossible. First of all a date would be necessary. I had never been on a date or anything remotely sililar, unless I counted riding my ten-speed bike with Matt, which I didn't. Andrea was always there too, hardly making it more than a family |