Under the Apple Tree by Wakefield Dan;

Author:Wakefield, Dan;
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Open Road Media

5

Now that Artie didn’t go to movies anymore unless they were about horses or monsters or other stuff he knew wouldn’t get him sexed up, he didn’t have any ordinary way of running into Shirley. He missed her not being in high school, when he could go by and wait for her at cheerleader practice and walk home with her talking of life and Roy, and singing sad songs in the late blue afternoon. He missed her, and he figured she must miss—well, his company at least, if not exactly him as a person. He thought she must be lonely without anything to do all day but practice her cooking, knit sweaters and socks for Roy, and roll bandages for the Red Cross once a week with the mothers, sisters, and wives of the Town’s servicemen.

The only way Artie could see her was simply to walk on over to Pine Street and ring her doorbell, but the truth was he dreaded the idea of Shirley’s mother coming to the door. He had a pretty good idea that Mrs. Colby hated his guts, just because he was Roy’s brother. Actually, a person like Marcelline Colby probably didn’t “hate your guts” because she was too high-falutin; she probably just sort of despised you, but it pretty much amounted to the same thing. A couple of times when he walked Shirley home she invited him in for hot chocolate or something afterward, but Mrs. Colby would be there huffing around with her nose in the air and making you feel like you were some kind of escaped convict, so Artie just made excuses and said his goodbyes on the sidewalk.

It really was chicken to let a stuck-up old bat scare you out of doing what you wanted to do, especially when you knew it was the right thing, and in fact was helping the War Effort by keeping up the morale of a girl who was keeping up the morale of a fighting man, so Artie just got up his gumption and set out for Pine Street one day after school.

As he walked to the Colbys’, Artie went over the reasons why he was just as good as anybody else and shouldn’t let Mrs. Colby make him feel like a worm. He was good in school and sports, he had earned the rank of First Class Scout and got his first three merit badges, and on top of everything else he had done about everything a kid on the Home Front could do to help the War Effort. Anyway, the whole point of fighting a War to save the world for democracy was so everyone could be free and equal, like Washington, Lincoln, and God Himself had intended, which was all the more reason to stand up proudly and fearlessly to Mrs. Colby.

Still, when Artie knocked on the door, he prayed that Shirley herself would answer it.

No such luck.

Mrs. Colby stood there looking down at him with an expression on her mug like she’d just eaten a lemon.

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