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Show 26-4 singing patriotic songs. The ceremony was to be held on the spot where the monument would be. The base would have been poured by that time. Our music teacher listed the songs we were to sing: "America," "Star Spangled Banner," "0 Columbia," "Onward Christian Soldiers," and others she would tell us about later. We were told to dress up in our Sunday best and to be sure and invite our parents. We would all be given American flags to wave. I told Andrew about the ceremony before I told Mother and Father. We were sitting in the dining hall of the hospital, playing checkers and watching the rain pour down the tall windows. I had come out after school to spend the afternoon. He listened as I told him about the parade before the ceremony, about the troops that were to be honor guards, the bands that were to play, the speeches by the mayor and the congressman. He listened, moving the checkers about the board with his free hand. His other hand had been rebandaged up to the elbow because it had become infected. Now he wore shirts with only one sleeve cut off. He listened and then asked only one question. "I wonder why we weren't invited?" Then he said, "You'd better not tell your mother. She may pull you out of school forever." He grinned for a moment. I had told him a little about my parents' feelings about the memorial, but had not told him everything about their conversation with the minister. I wasn't sure how he would feel. But he agreed with them about the memorial. "A waste of money," he called it. "Better to buy us all a good cigar." Now he was joking again. I wasn't sure how Mother would feel about the celebration, and about my being in it. I would face that tonight. Now I concentrated on the game. Andrew had become very good at checkers and while I had played a lot with him, I could never beat hi*. He played with some of the other men who, he said, were master checkers players. We had tried to learn chess but |
