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Show 12 wearing nothing over his T-shirt even though it was still cold, brazenly two feet off the painted base itself, waiting for Jerry Wopschall to quit fanning the fuckin air, man, and hit the fuckin ball. Lorin had been the only one in class who didn't raise his hand when the teacher had asked for a division of the house between those who agreed with the president and those who disagreed. When the total came up short somebody said Lorin hadn't voted. He felt his cheeks burn. Mrs. Ferguson asked him if he intended to abstain. He had never heard the word before but said yes, and everyone booed. Mrs. Ferguson rapped on her desk with a paperweight and then explained what abstention was. Some people called it fence-sitting, but it was a constitutional right. Lorin was entitled to abstain if he wanted to. Lorin did not feel any better knowing he was the only one who had abstained-- Jimmy Vialpando had apparently voted one way or the other since the total was only short by one--but the truth was he had thought the matter over very carefully and couldn't decide if his instinct was right or wrong. His instinct told him that a president fired somebody for complicated reasons that he wouldn't understand. The creeping uncertainty about his instinct had started when he heard his father say they ought to impeach the little bastard. Most of the people in his class thought so too (Bob Foster even said he was in favor of assassination, but Mrs. Ferguson told him that was enough), and Mrs. Ferguson herself was clearly upset. After his humiliation at being the only abstainer in class Lorin would not have admitted it under torture, but he was not entirely clear on what MacArthur had been fired for. It was just possible that if he could find out from someone he could revise his instincts. He was still considering it when Jerry Wopschall hit the ball and started to lumber toward first base. Lorin's stomach clenched until he |