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Show 87 "Then there's me and the ghetto cruiser," Tiedemann said. "Robert, you've been marvelous! What would we have done without your old station wagon? We must owe you a fortune for gas." "You do." He rolled his eyes at Dyna. "Really," Simpson persisted, "you kids have been terrific." "Don't forget Parker's dad," Jan said, getting in her two bits. "Oscar Pruitt's the one who won't forget Mr. Parker. Getting Oscar a continuance on his court date . . . why, we'd never have thought of that ourselves." Dyna could feel Parker scooting down in his seat. He hated compliments, even when he deserved them. Then Big John threw his hand in the air. "All in favor of taking a day off-" "Okay, okay," Mrs. Simpson admitted, "so I've been a slave-driver. Aren't you glad we did it? Now that it's nearly over?" Derek gave Amy an order out of the side of his mouth. "Type up and run off twenty copies of pages 3,6,9,10, and 14. You've got five minutes." They all started laughing again, Amy loudest of all. Still holding the roll book in her arms, Mrs. Simpson leaned back against her desk and looked off to some distant place beyond the northwest corner of the room. The noise subsided. "I can see it all now . . ." she began in the solemn tones of prophesy. "THE TAX REJECT . . . Produced by Savoy Crockett . . . Created by Room 112 of Bonneville High School . . ." She took a dramatic pause. "Then your names will appear." She nodded at John. "John Anzak." "Amy Debbenham." "Derek Eccles." On down the roll she went, saying each name as if she were presenting Olympic medals. By the time she finished, she was the one blinking back tears. She turned away from the class and laid the roll on her desk. "Can you imagine how that's going to feel?" "You forgot yourself,""Dyna said. "Kate Simpson should be first." Then the class began to clap and Mrs. Simpson had to turn her back once more. Quickly, then, she gathered up the manuscripts and began distributing them to her students. "Let's go over these for errors. One last time," she said. Nobody groaned. |