J. ms summer was different from any other time Mick could remember. Nothing much happehat she could describe to herself in thoughts or words—but there was a feeling of
ge. AH the time she was excited. In the m she couldnt wait to get out of bed and start going for the day. And at night she hated like hell to have to sleep again.
Right after breakfast she took the kids out, and except for meals they were gone most of the day. A good deal of the time they just roamed around the streets—with her pulling Ralphs wagon and Bubber following along behind. Always she was busy with thoughts and plans. Sometimes she would look up suddenly and they would be way off in some part of town she didnt even reize. And once or twice they ran into Bill oreets and she was so busy thinking he had to grab her by the arm to make her see him.
Early in the ms it was a little cool and their shadows stretched out tall on the sidewalk in front of them. But in the middle of the day the sky was always blazing hot. The glare was sht it hurt to keep your eyes open. A lot of times the plans about the things that were going to happen to her were mixed up with id snow. Sometimes it was like she was out in Switzerland and all the mountains were covered with snow and she was skating on cold, greenish-colored ice.
Mister Singer would be skating with her. And maybe Carole Lombard or Ar-turo Tosi who played on the radio. They would be skating together and then Mister Singer would fall throughthe id she would dive in withard for peril and swim uhe id save his life. That was one of the plans always going on in her mind.
Usually after they had walked awhile she would park Bubber and Ralph in some shady place. Bubber was a swell kid and she had trained him pretty good. If she told him not to go out of h distance from Ralph she wouldnt ever find him shooting marbles with kids two or three blocks away. He played by himself he wagon, and when she left them she didnt have to worry much. She either went to the library and looked at the National Geographic or else just roamed around and thought some more. If she had any money she bought a dope or a Milky Way at Mister Brannons. He gave kids a
redu. He sold them hings for three ts.
But all the time—no matter what she was doing—there was musietimes she hummed to herself as she walked, and other times she listened quietly to the songs inside her. There were all kinds of musi her thoughts. Some she heard over radios, and some was in her mind already without her ever having heard it anywhere.
In the night-time, as soon as the kids were in bed, she was free. That was the most important time of all. A lot of things happened when she was by herself and it was dark. Right after supper she ran out of the house again. She couldnt tell anybody about the things she did at night, and when her Mama asked her questions she would answer with any little tale that sounded reasonable. But most of the time if anybody called her she just ran away like she hadnt heard. That went for everybody except her Dad. There was something about her Dads voice she couldnt run away from. He was one of the biggest, tallest men in the whole town. But his voice was so quiet and kindly that people were surprised when he spoke.
No matter how much of a hurry she was in, she always had to stop when her Dad called.
This summer she realized something about her Dad she had never known before. Up until then she had hough