Tunes for Bears to Dance To by Robert Cormier

Author:Robert Cormier [Cormier, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-54844-3
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2009-02-25T05:00:00+00:00

“Stay awhile after I cash up,” Mr. Hairston “said. “I have something to show you.”

Ordinarily, Henry was free to leave the store when the six o’clock whistle blew at the fire station down the street, signaling the end of the business day. When Henry went out the door, Mr. Hairston was always busy at the cash register, counting the money and entering various amounts into a ledger.

“Have a Baby Ruth while you wait,” Mr. Hairston said. Baby Ruth was his favorite candy bar, which the grocer had offered him only once before. He knew that eating the candy would spoil his supper but hesitated to rebuff his boss. Chances were that supper might be late anyway, because his mother often worked overtime at the diner.

While Henry chewed listlessly, the caramel sticking to the roof of his mouth, Mr. Hairston continued to enter figures into the ledger. Finally, he closed the ledger and looked at Henry, a strange expression on his face. Strange for Mr. Hairston, that is, because his face was almost pleasant, his features suddenly soft, not sour as usual.

The grocer opened a drawer in the counter and drew out a sheet of paper. He placed it flat on the counter and motioned for Henry to approach and look at it.

The paper showed a black-and-white drawing of a stone monument, the name EDWARD CASSAVANT at the bottom in fancy letters. Above the name were a baseball bat and ball embedded in the stone, the bat upright as Henry had envisioned, and the ball, stitchings visible and scarred a bit like a real ball, at the base of the bat.

Henry’s throat tightened. He had no words to describe a thing of such beauty. Taking his eyes reluctantly away from the sketch, he looked up with gratitude at the grocer.

Then looked away, thinking dismally, How could we afford such a monument?

“Well, what do you think?” the grocer asked.

Henry detected eagerness in the grocer’s voice, something he had never heard before. He was uncomfortable as Mr. Hairston waited for his reaction, his eyes fastened upon him. This was a Mr. Hairston he had never encountered before.

“It’s beautiful,” Henry said, the word inadequate. “But how much will this cost?”

Mr. Hairston shrugged and opened the ledger became busy with it again, studying the entries as if he was looking for a mistake he hadmade. He mumbled something that Henry did not catch.

“I don’t think we could afford a monument like this,” Henry said reluctantly, placing the sketch on the counter.

Mr. Hairston looked up, coughed and cleared his throat, and said, “Maybe we can work something out. …”

Henry had been about to turn away when Mr. Hairston’s response struck him like a lightning bolt. Struck was exactly the word. There was no thunder and no storm, only maybe we can work something out.

Then, regarding Henry with that same soft expression the boy could not identify, Mr. Hairston said, “We’ll see.”

Magic words, we’ll see. What his mother and father said when they did not want to say yes right away.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.