Keep Smiling Through by Ann Rinaldi

Author:Ann Rinaldi [Rinaldi, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

On Easter Monday, Tom and Martin got all their chores done so they could go to New York the next day.

One of Martin's chores is collecting the tin cans and newspapers for the scrap drive. I usually help him with the tin cans.

First we peel the paper off the cans. Then I stand at one end of the kitchen and Martin stands at the other. We make a game of it.

He rolls the can to me. And just as it gets to my feet, I jump and stamp on it to flatten it.

We rolled and flattened several cans, and Martin was putting them in a box when he looked at me.

"I'm taking them to the salvage bin in the wagon this afternoon," he said. "I've always had the biggest haul of scrap. But do you know what they need most?"

"No," I said.

"Rubber. They need lots of rubber to fight the war. Do you want to give us your rubber baby doll?"

I stared down at him hard. "Are you crazy? Give Mary Frances? I can't do that."

"Why?"

"Why?" For a minute I couldn't think why. Then I did. "Because they'd tear her apart and kill her. She can't die."

"Why?"

Why? Didn't boys understand anything? They all wanted to be Superman and bend steel with their bare hands and change the course of mighty rivers. But they didn't understand why a girl couldn't give her one and only baby doll to the scrap drive.

Because Mary Frances is more than a baby doll, that's why. She's my friend. I hug her at night, when I'm afraid. Or when I've been hit by Amazing Grace or yelled at by my father.

"Because Nana just made her a new dress," I said. "And you can't die when you've just been given a new dress."

To give Martin credit, he didn't argue. "Okay," he said. I thought that was very decent of him.

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