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Show in my father's house/ 146 like Aunt Gerda's to back up my presence on earth. No one seemed concerned about these two missing documents but me. "In God's eyes we are legal, and that's what counts darling," my mother reassured me. But I could not be so certain. On the first day of school I discovered that the teachers knew all about my family. Despite the fact that Hugh and I each were registered by a different mother and that we sat at opposite ends of the semi-circle of chairs, the teacher commented nasally, "Two Allreds. How nice. And are you related?" "Cousins," we answered in unison, as coached. The teacher raised an eyebrow. "Oh. Is that what you call each other?" Her voice was biting. Hugh and I glanced at each other, then quickly looked at our shoes. The next day Christine Warden snubbed me. The day before *re had played together and decided to be best friends. She was a tall girl with lovely red hair and a manner which I later :alled aristocratic. Christine had gone to her good Mormon lome with stories about the little Allred girl who was to be ier friend forever. But her older brothers and sisters knew too much about us: The oldest Allred boys had been in their classes, and everybody knew how their parents lived. No matter low nice the Allreds acted, they told Christine, the way the Allreds lived wasn't nice. |