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Show . i ALL DUNN by Roy Dunn I would just sit and stare at me with a menacing look and his blue eyes were icy at these times. But I was torn between my fear of Walter and my love for Susie. I went around all the time, about half sick, wondering wonder-ing if it was worth living so dangerously. Everybody was always al-ways warning me what a dangerous dan-gerous character Walter was and he never said anything to me but just looked at me kinda mean every chance he got and Susie just went on giving me more and more extra pie. I tell you, that was my summer of discontent. Like I was saying, we were sitting out there on the porch when Susie suggested that we go inside, to her room, where the mosquitoes wouldn't be so pesky. HOWDY FOLKS Spring is near, present ice and snow notwithstanding, and when spring comes I am reminded the mating season is near. This is the time of year when a young man's fancy turns to love. Right off, he becomes miserfable, suffers from loss of appetite and is liable to lock horns with any male who might cast a lewed eye toward the object ob-ject of his ailment. It wasn't that way with me when I was stricken with the love bug for the first time for I wasn't the bold type but my heart ached for the want of this fair damsel. I would have climbed the highest mountain for her but there wasn't any mojntains in that part of Oklahoma. Okla-homa. It was as flat as the Dalm of your hand. the top of his lungs and , i trying to kick the door dom - The earth was soft for i Z l dropped in a flower bed w 5 and I scrambled to my feet m headed for the railroad yZ 1 where I spent the night in? '. empty box car. But I " sleep very much. Not knowing what else toj, I showed up on the job i next morning. It was then tlu-I tlu-I learned I had been the tim of a huge joke and aftp they had all had a good law the boss took me down ton and treated me to a p breakfast. Later, Susie said 4, wished she hadn't been r suaded to play her part. I got over it all and got tot, the pet of the whole bunch mi there was plenty of pie, ey(n meal. Shucks, I don't reckon really loved that woman. 1 thought I did. Walter turvj out to be a regular guy and m best friend. Seems like Ste was his sister. SEE YA'ALL LATER ging for I was already on my way. Walter had waited for me in the hall and when I came out of Susie's room, he made for me with a knife in one hand and a gun in the other. As I took the stairs, three at a time, he was close behind me yelling curses and the knife in his hand sliced the air just inches from my derriere with every step I took. It just didn't occur to me tnat he could have shot me at any time. But who thinks at times like this? I tell you folks, I've never been so scared before or since. It was horrible and as I slammed slam-med the door of the bathroom at the top of the stairs behind me, I shot the bolt home and squeezed through the window while Walter, on the other side of the door was screaming at I reckin I hadn't been sitting on the edge of the chair in her room more than five minutes, when the closet door suddenly opened and Walter stalked out across the room, slamming the door behind him as he went out in the hall. Susie gasped. "Oh my gosh, now we are in a fix. You'd better get outta here, and quick!" I didn't need any of her ur- But when you're fifteen years old, and in love, nothing seems impossible. That's the way it was with me. Child labor laws hadn't been heard of, and besides, I could easily pass for an eighteen year old. No questions were asked at the labor temple where I was bound an apprentice appren-tice to a carpenter contractor for a period of four years. At the end of this period of time, -I would be issued a journeyman's journey-man's union card if I passed the required examination. This all came about in due time but the first year of the apprenticeship apprentice-ship was the hardest and the pay was twenty eight cents an hour for a ten hour day. It was during this first year that I had the misfortune to fall in love. The contractor for which I was working was awarded a contract to build a house for a coal mining company, a huge frame house with many rooms inside and lots of gingerbread on the outside as was the style in those days. When it was finished, fin-ished, it was occupied by the mine superintendent and there were many of these for this was the great coal fields of Henryetta, Oklahoma, which could be compared with Carbon County of Utah. The contractor made arrangements ar-rangements for the crew of men with which I worked to stay at the mining company's boarding house and it was here that I first feasted my eyes on Susie who was a skullery maid and waitress in this boarding house. She was probably old enough to be my mother, (maybe thirty-three) but that made no difference dif-ference to me for I was in love. She didn't try to discourage me, in fact, she sorta urged me on by doing little things like sitting a bowl of beans on the table, and in so doing, would reach over my head then drag her arms slowly over my shoulders shoul-ders after sitting the bowl down. It got so dadgummed bad that she'd always give me an extra piece of pie or some other goodie more than the other guys got! The knowing looks of my coworkers co-workers and their words of comment all served to make me self conscious and embarressed but my love for her burned brightly and I suffered their joshing in silence I tell you folks, it was a difficult time for me for I couldn't seem to convince those guys I worked with that my intensions toward Susie were honorable and as-pure as-pure as a lamb's fleece. And that's a fact. This romance flourished and blossomed to the point that I was sorta going around in a fog and finally got up enough courage to ask her for a date, my first ,the very first time in my life to ask a girl to go out with me. Of course she accepted, and after I had helped her wash the dishes one night, I walked her downtown where we attended a movie and had a dish of ice cream with strawberries on top, after the show. It must have been eleven o'clock when we set in the porch swing of the boarding house and watched the fireflys as their tails glimmered and glowed over the lawn out front. I just sat there, with my hands in my lap, and I couldn't think of anything to say, no matter j how hard I tried. My throat felt like there was an avocado stuck in it and wouldn't come up or go down. I just sat there , and sorta wheezed. After a little lit-tle while of this, she said, "I'm kinda worried. I wonder where Walter is? "I didn't answer for I didn't know where Walter, was, but I sure was doing some mighty tall thinking. Walter was the only real fly in my ointment. He was a coal I miner who staved at the boarding board-ing house. I figured all coal miners were tough and mean but Walter was more than this, a rough, tough, hairless giant who was insanely jealous of Susie and would go completely off his rocker if anyone so much as looked at Susie more than once in a single day. By 1; golly, I was sure afraid of that Paul Bunyan which never had J anything to say to me, but |