110: For a whole week . . .
Little Follies, “The Fox and the Clam,” Chapter 6
6
FOR A WHOLE WEEK, I had to stay in my room from the time I got home from school until it was time to get ready to go to school the next morning. I also had to apologize to Matthew.
My mother drove me to Mrs. Barber’s shop. We walked inside, and my mother said, “Hello, Mrs. Barber. Peter would like to say something to you.”
Mrs. Barber looked down at me and smiled. She was wearing a white dress with puffy sleeves. Printed on the dress were yellow pansies that looked at me with expressions of stern accusation. But Mrs. Barber didn’t seem to be upset with me at all. She seemed sympathetic.
“I’m sorry I punched Matthew,” I said.
“That’s all right, Peter,” said Mrs. Barber. “I understand.”
“Peter would like to apologize to Matthew too, wouldn’t you, Peter,” my mother said.
“Yes,” I said, to the floor.
“Matthew is in the yard, Peter,” said Mrs. Barber. “Why don’t you go out and talk to him there?”
“Okay,” I said, and I went off in the direction she showed me, through the back room and out a varnished door. I heard my mother and Mrs. Barber talking behind me, and when I paused a moment at the door and looked back into the shop, I saw that my mother was watching me. I opened the door and went out into the yard.
Matthew was sitting in a tire swing, swinging slowly back and forth, letting his feet scrape in the taupe dust under the swing. I had the feeling that he had been waiting for me. I walked up to him at once. I wanted to get this over with.
“My mother says that I have to apologize,” I said.
He just kept swinging.
“So—” I said.
He just kept swinging.
“So, I’m doing what she told me I have to do. This is it. I’m doing it now,” I said.
“What?” he asked.
“You know,” I said. “What my mother told me to do.”
I turned and walked away.
[to be continued on Friday, October 15, 2021]
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In Topical Guide 110, Mark Dorset considers Realism in the Service of Romance (that is, Fiction); Photography; and Art: Necessity of Transformation in from this episode.
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