| OCR Text |
Show 5-7 I hated myself for what I had done to him. I loved Father so much and we had had such a good time. Why were those men always coming between us? I picked up my bookbag and walked out onto the grass. I kept close to the hospital, away from the men on the lawn. I plopped my hat on my head and pulled jt low over my eyes. But they paid no attention to me. When I reached the corner of the hospital, I thought for a minute of sitting on the front steps until Father was ready to leave. But I wanted to read and people coming In and out would surely stop and want to talk. Besides, one of the men might come by. I looked across the path and noticed a wooden bench with a high back facing out over the open grassy area. It looked isolated and just what I wanted at that moment. It was hot in the sun but my hat shaded me and I was a bit shivery. I crossed the path, hopped down the slight decline and rounded the bench, dropping my bookbag over the high back. Someone was already sitting there. He turned. I felt as if I had been hit in the face, hard. For a moment, I couldn't breathe. My whole being was trapped in my eyes, which were trapped by his face. The only normal thing in his face were his eyes, but even they were pulled out of shape. The rest of his face was red, as if it had been deeply sunburned and all his features were pulled downward, as if hot tears had run down and had melted his face. His mouth was of normal size but had no lips. It looked like someone had cut a slit where his mouth had been. We stared at each other, I holding to the back of the bench, he half turned away from me. I wanted to turn and run away, not in space, but in time, back to the moment before I had seen him. But the longer I stood there, the more I knew I couldn't run away. I could not let him know what I was feeling. |
