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Show 141 around who never get caught* I'm sorry-" she gestured vaguely, "I guess I'm getting cynical in my age." cynical, Parker knew she wasn't old o£7 but at the moment her face looked gray, washed out against the splashy colors of her blouse. Suddenly, he wanted to put his arms around her, but of course he didn't, and silence filled the spaces between them. "Do you know what I think?" she said at last. He waited. "I think the most devastating thing could be her fall from grace in this class. She was somebody here in creative writing. Dyna Suggs came into her own right there, in that seat four rows back." Wondrously, lights began to appear again in Mrs. Simpson's eyes. "Parker, we can't let this ruin her. We can't let her lose the good feelings she's had about herself. She's a talented, witty . .. loveable girl! With a past. We needed her in this class. And now she needs us." Parker felt color creep into his own cheeks. Abruptly she stood, flungout her arms, "_I can't just stand by, can you?" "No, we can't just stand by," Parker agreed with the originality of an echo, flattening the can and folding it in upon itself. They left it at that. They hadn't accomplished anything, but they'd talked, and that gave Parker something to go on. Simpson filled her briefcase and he started moving desks, but his mind was leaping ahead, making connections. All year he'd amused himself contemplating the exposed pipe that ran ceiling to floor in Simpson's room. Now, in his mind's eye, he saw a similar temptation, the drainpipe in the southwest corner of the detention building where Dyna was being held. He'd spent his lunch hour driving there, circling the building twice, then rushing back to school. The eight-foot fence surrounding the DT would present no problem at all to a climber. |
