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Show 142 I capitalized on this in a story called "Wallflower" (what else) and won a prize in a short story competition, as I did on the episode of Leonard, and also won a prize for a short story called "The Throw of a Stone. " Both stories were almost straight reporting. From my own misery I came to sense the timidity of the young boys in asking girls to dance; they were afraid of being turned down, especially the short ones, so when Raymond Dunn, who was very small, got up courage to ask me to dance I didn't turn him down, but together we learned the steps. Other boys dared to ask me and I taught them what I knew. Finally, one of Eldon's friends, Bob Wells, came and asked me to dance. "I notice you never turn a boy down, " he said. "I admire that. " Bob Wells was my friend from then on, and I could always count on him for at least one dance. I developed a feeling for him more on the brother-sister plane. He was Hap's cousin. This was a little gain, but by no means broke the impasse. Even my girl friends deserted me. Emmy started going steady; Lasca and Annie got chances to go riding with boys and were not about to risk their own popularity by including me. I was slowly forced into a crowd of girls with rather low mentality and crude blood. Mama must have seen what was happening to me. She let me go to Oak City with my cousin Mabel, whose mother had sent her to Joseph to break up a romance not to her liking, and it worked. Mabel was the age of Eldon. |
