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Show He hadn't raised his hand, of course, but the childhood favorites came parading through his head as soon as he issued the permit: Long John Silver, Oliver Twist, Tom Sawyer, Rudy Matt, of course, who conquered his pride on The Citadel. He'd jumped when John Anzak said Rudy Matt's name out loud. It made him wonder for a minute if John was into climbing, but he quickly shrugged off the idea. Big John's team T-shirt was a true credential: he was strictly a grandstander. Parker remembered waiting for someone in the class to volunteer the animals' names. Finally, Debbie Northrup, nearly jumping out of her seat, had added Gentle Ben to the list of favorites and everyone cheered. For Parker, it was a great relief. It meant he'd gotten through that first period without one of his stumbling, mumbling, half-witted efforts at class recitation. Now Parker glanced at the wall clock. He was finishing early. His eye lingered on the exposed pipe that ran up the wall near the clock as he imagined the kind of lie-back a trip to the ceiling would require. He smiled, realizing he'd have time to get in some boulder-ing tonight before dark. Quickly, he pushed the desks back into neat rows. He'd thought briefly about doing Mrs. Simpson's boards, but now his better judgment prevailed. No sense in spoiling things. She'd expect it every day. Having swept the floors and removed fresh gum with his putty knife, Parker picked up the gray wastebasket by the teacher's desk and carried it back to the collector bin. But he stopped before dumping its contents. His paper, the one he'd written for her this morning when she'd so kindly invited them to write a paragraph about themselves, was grinning at him from where she'd discarded it. It mocked him, there among the classroom refuse. A grape soda can had bled all over it, for hell's sake. Shavings he'd dumped from the pencil sharpener clung to the damp paper, obliterating his written words the way fear habitually silenced his spoken ones. Gently, Parker lifted his paper from the others. He read what he had written: |
