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Show 69 never make the re-runs if we don't get going." Jeff collapsed backwards into his seat, shot down. Jan laughed. "Listen, you kids. Here's what 1^ think-" By now she had a modicum of attention from the others. "We ought to write a story about the struggles old people have to get along these days." She paused. The room grew quiet. "Dyna, you can tell us," Jan went on. "You live with your grandmother. Doesn't she have kind of a hard time . . . you know, with inflation and everything?" Dyna wrinkled her nose. "That's an understatement!" Eccles wasn't sure. "What do you mean, understatement?" "Don't you know what an understatement is?" Heidi asked, shoving her desk in closer to the action. "Give him a 'for instance,*" said Bob Tiedemann. "He's kinda slow." "Okay," Dyna said. By now most of the class was up on desk tops, all except Parker and Tiffany. Dyna swung around to face the rest of the class, her blue-jeaned legs dangling. "At our house we have Monday's bread. And Tuesday's. Etcetera. Any of you have your bread rationed?" No one said a word. "If I eat an extra sandwich on Thursday I don't get toast Friday morning. If I make a real pig of myself like I do sometimes-obviously- then Gram has to bake to get us through the weekend." "So? What's wrong with that?" Kevin challenged. "I never get any of that fresh baked bread. Man, I love it. Hot, with butter melting on top, a spoonful of jelly. What's wrong with homemade bread?" Dyna's face sobered as Kevin carried on. "Gram has arthritis in her hands," she said quietly after he'd finished his rhapsody on homemade bread. "You figure it out." Kevin looked away. Amy got back to the question. "The idea sounds good, Jan," she said, her voice controlled and diplomatic, "but how can we get a story out of old people's problems that anyone would be interested in? I think child abuse has lots more possibilities." "Me, too," John Anzak backed her up. They operate in tandem, Parker thought, like championship skaters. You move, I move. You spin, I spin. John and Amy. They were dizzyingly alike. |
