🎧 120: “So I sat there, . . .”

13

“SO I SAT THERE, looking at Mr. Grundtvig,” said Matthew, between bites of the tuna fish sandwich I had given him, “and I said to myself, ‘This is it. Everything depends on this.’ There I was. I was actually in the predicament that the man in the rowboat was in. Grundtvig began tapping his pencil on his pad and he looked up at me. As soon as he looked at me, I knew what to do. I gave him the kind of story you would give him! You know what I told him happened at the end? The guy was carried off by a mermaid! They lived happily ever after. I couldn’t believe it. I heard myself saying all this, but I couldn’t believe it.”
     I couldn’t believe it either. I sat looking at Matthew, who went on with his story, filling in the details, laughing, and pounding the table with his hand. My heart sank. The more he elaborated on the story, the surer I became that we would be going our separate ways. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Matthew what I had done.

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