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Show Kay... A SHORT STORY By Richard H. Wilkinson Kay was not without her dreams. She dreamed of a knight on a white charger coming to take her away. Figuratively, of course. She had dreamed thus for years. Since the last year of grade school. It was then that she began to wonder what lay beyond the hill, about the world outside. She had, of course, a sweetheart. sweet-heart. No girl as beautiful as Kay living in such a tiny hamlet so far away from things could be without with-out one. His name was Lee Franklin. Frank-lin. He worked for his father in their apple orchard. He was a pood boy. He had graduated from the state university. Some day he would inherit his father's vast acres. She was the envy of every girl 5sudden desperation what he had done. "I don't feel that way toward you, Kay! Believe me I don't' This is the first time. There's never been another like you. There never ! will be for all time." He looked at her pleadingly. She knew he was sincere, that he meant what he said, that he did love her, but she withdrew her hand from his grasp. "I understand, Don. And I believe you, too. Only I'm not used to people like you. For a minute you carried me away. I'm used to to a different sort of life, to having eomething to cling to. It's born in me, and I can never get away from it, I guess. We're so far apart, so different. Don't you see ? We could never be happy together." But Don didn't see, and there was no good tarying to explain, though she tried, for she owed him much. He had given her more than than she could ever repay, the value of which he could never realize. It hurt her because he went a-way a-way without understanding. She wondered if all men were like that. It was selfish, when you came right down to it, because men never tried to understand. Men only thought of themselves and getting what they wanted. They didn't have much feeling, or the ability to see a thing from someone else's point of view. She was feeling thus the next evening when Lee Franklin drove into the yard. He came up the steps to the porch where she sat alone, and she remembered that she hadn't seen him for a week. She wondered how he felt, and curiously the answer to this question was important. ' "Hello, Kay," he said. He sat downbeside her, and looked off across the lawn toward his father's orchards on the side of the hill. "He's igone. Of course you know. He left town late last night." "Yes," said Kay, "I know." He turned to her, and suddenly she saw what she had done, saw the watching people and heard their wagging tongues and under stood the hurt in Lee Franklin's heart. The picture filled her with horror. "Well, look," Lee said. "That's over now. You sent him away. There's only one answer to that. You sent him because of me. Well, I still love you, Kay. I know how it was how it is for a girl like you, cooped up in a small town like this. But now you know we have some things here will you marry me now?" Kay turned up her face to him. It was radiant,, yet there were tears in her eyes. "Oh, dear, Lee, you do understand. I thought no man did, but now I know differently. How could I help being happy with you?" in town. The older folks said she, was lucky. Yet they admitted it was as it should be. Kay and Lee were suited. Kay knew she was envied and knew she was lucky. She hated herself for not being satisfied, for not ibeing completely happy, for not yielding to Lee's plea for an immediate marriage. She marveled at his patience. She decided he must realize she was not wholly contented. He knew something was wrong, yet was unable to identify it. So time went on. Kay continued to dream her dream, to wonder and hope and yearn for something she couldn't explain, something that was beyond her reach. Folks at length began to wonder and whis per among themselves, and Kay realized with a sort of desperation that the time was soon coming when she would have to make her decision. And then suddenly one day Kay's knight appeared. He did not, of course ride on a white charger, nor yet did he wear a suit of mail. Yet Kay knew it was he the (minute she heard about the young artist who was boarding at Ma Plumber's. She saw him the next day in the post office. Bryant Beachwood, the postal clerk, introduced them. His name was Don Craddock, and he was tall and handsome and fair. Looking at him, Kay's heart skipped a beat. She heard him asking ask-ing about the countryside, and heard him suggest that he call for her that afternoon so she could show it to him. ' She nodded dumbly. She was in a daze. He was her knight. He came from 'beyond the hills. Nothing else mattered now. He was here She didn't care what people thought or said or did. It lasted a week. Then Don Craddock went away. He went a-way a-way ibecause he had fallen in love with Kay Bronson and he couldn't have her and it was easier being away. It was the night before he left that it happened. During the intervening time Kay had learned many things about Don and about the world where he came from. "I've known a lot of women," he said. "An awful lot hut you, you're different. I love you, Kay." "Did you love the others?" He gestured aimlessly.' "Who knows? Perhaps. At least I did for the moment. But an artist we're temperamental. We take our fun and move on." He saw her looking at him, and realized with |