The Pond by Robert Murphy

Author:Robert Murphy [MURPHY, ROBERT]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV002000, JUV029010, JUV024000
ISBN: 9781468306477
Publisher: The Overlook Press
Published: 2012-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

This was apparently the school which Odie and Claude attended, closed now for Thanksgiving vacation, and the woman was the teacher cleaning up a little. She finished shaking the rug, turned to go in again, and there was a whistle from the bottom of the hill. The woman turned and waved, and a man whom Joey hadn’t seen because he had been sitting quietly beside a tree stood up. It was Sam White; Joey was close enough to be sure of that.

The boy was startled to see him there, and to be so close to him; because of the silence of his footsteps in the wet leaves he had almost stumbled over the man. Some things he had overheard, some innuendoes and oblique references, came into his mind. The man had whistled and the woman had waved at him; it indicated that they had met before. In another moment she came out again, shut the door, looked up and down the road, and then crossed it toward White. Joey wanted to run and was afraid to, for she was coming toward him and might see him; she might even call out. If she did this it would bring Sam White’s attention to him, and Joey wanted nothing to do with Sam White. Joey had stopped by a thick growth of holly trees and was partially concealed from her; he moved very slowly behind them and crouched down.

The woman came closer. She was not very tall, and she had blonde hair; she was almost pretty, but the almost-prettiness was spoiled by an expression at once avid and wary. She came up to White and looked at him flirtatiously, with her head canted, but when he reached one hand toward her she avoided it with a step to one side. They stood and looked at each other for a moment.

“You ain’t very friendly,” White said, “movin’ out of the way. I reckoned you might be friendlier this time.”

“I am friendly, Sam,” she said. “I like to talk to you. You know that.”

“I reckon you wouldn’t be here at all if all you wanted to do was talk.”

“That’s not true. Why do you say a thing like that?”

“I say it on account of I think it,” White said. “Maybe from now on we better talk in the road, or where everybody can see us.” The woman didn’t say anything; she looked at the ground for a long moment, and White went on. “Maybe,” he said, “you want to catch Crenshaw first.”

The woman looked at him. “I want to get married,” she said defiantly, and added with more calmness, “Every woman wants to get married, Sam. They’re nowhere without that.”

“You get married, then,” White said. “I can wait.” He grinned at her. “Well, I got to get back.”

The woman took half a step toward him, and stopped. “You’re not going to … I mean, I always come here to the school for a while on Saturdays. I’m not going to stop coming.”

“I’ll see you, I reckon,” White said, and grinned again.

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