Show HI ION REWRITE MAN by HILDA PHELPS HAMMOND borner B M ARTY HENDRICKS tapped his PC pencil n c 11 0 on n the desk and glanced nervously y a at t the wall clock only twenty minutes more before the dead line fa for r the afternoon star and not a stor story Y worth orth a rap had come in over the tel telephone chonel not that marty jendricks len dricks usually a ily worried about what kind of story came in over the wire he h had d a always had magic in his fingers angers magic that let him take the drnest bit of news from police stations or fire houses and rewrite re write it I 1 into n 0 a regular arabian nights tale but today things had been different today marty hendricks had ove overheard heard a conversation between the city editor and the chief and his whole world had crumbled say the chief had said laid as marty paused a moment outside his halt half open d door to sharpen a this pencil w wrong ron 9 with weeks marty ile used to be the best best rewrite re write man in the whole fiction south cou could id take a story over the wire end and turn it into apiece a piece that made a sob sister out of every woman but 1 hea 3 e 8 gone to pieces written a good story tor for months ive noticed that myse myself if the city editor answered as martys heart thumped guess he hes gone stale twenty five years at a r rewrite desk will do that to a man well hell have to spruce up or give ve up the job the chief growled theres Th ereg a man lor for that job and they say hes a dandy If Marty perk up wed better put him back on some light work and get that young fellow the conversation had trailed on but marty had not listened to any more of it his hands were trembling as ai he found his way back to hit his desk and there was a lump in his hi throat that he swallow no matter how hard bard he tried he marty hendricks the best rewrite re write man that the star had ever had about to be ditched he sat aaa down at his desk and tried to think what it would mean to sarah ann it if he lost this job sarah ann was wai a good wife a mighty good one she could make a dollar go further than any other wife he knew but even sarah ann had a hard time getting all the things the kids adds needed out of his salary and if that was cut no telling how be able to manage six kids they ate up a lot six kids did I 1 and now that marty junior was heading for college they had to put a little aside every month yes alx lx kids were an awful lot TOO MANY he thought as he glanced down at the snapshot pressed under the glass top of his desk there they were sarah ann and the six of them he turned his bis eyes away from the snapshot and glanced at the wall clock if a story would only come just one story that would let him show the chief what he could dot dol ah there was the telephone bowl ile remembered there was a bf cycle and a boy at his house too he picked up the receiver and C leared cleared his throat hello he said yes an accident at st charles avenue and adams yes ive got it that boy ten years old no hope a bicycle bile eye le and a car yes whose boy dont know yet I 1 see ile he put down the receiver and pulled his type typewriter riter towards him its his fingers reached for or the keys ten minutes to the dead line now hed have to hurry hed have ic to make it a good story this might be the last story hed ever rewrite re write it if he make it good HIS PIS eyes strayed again to the A 4 snapshot beneath the glass ten years old why that was just the age of little aidyl perhaps the boy looked like andy perhaps he had blue eyes and red cheeks and a nose that turned up IUs his fingers began to play upon the keys of 0 the typewriter lightly as though someone else were writing funny he thought that the words should sup slip off the keys so fast now he even have to think the story was writing itself writing itself this way he might have been mine what every man and woman in new orleans should think when they read about the ten year old boy who will never ride a bicycle again it happened at st charles avenue and adams street in the city of new orleans but it happens every day in every city of america it was only a secondhand second hand bike but the boy must have thought it as handsome as any bicycle that ever came out of a department store his father probably want him to have it and his mother probably want him to have it either but mothers and fathers have soft hearts and so this mother and father bear to say no to him although their heads must have told them that they were tools fools to send a child of ten into that line of traffic the bicycle was painted red and the handlebars were still silvery when they found the pieces but the wheels ot of the bicycle were as crumbled and twisted a as the body of 0 th the small boy the tha police reported yet who was to blame for for the accident but WE know it was the fault of au all of us the fault of 0 modem civilization which allows allow cars and trucks and little lads on bicycles to ride together on the same streets lie he might have been your kid and he might have been mine what are we wa going t to do about it marty marly stopped a moment and reread the last line it was a tunny funny line to end a story with he thought a wrong line perhaps the chief might not like it ile he started to change it but he first of all because he could fit think of anything else to say and then too because he was in a great hurry all at once he snatched the paper from the typewriter and fairly ran to the city editors desk the city editors eyes traveled over the page pretty good he announced when he had finished reading it A little too much editorial flavor to it but youve perked up marty why wheres he gone for marty hendricks HAD gone he had made the elevator in nothing flat and he was already shooting down in the lift he wondering how the city editor liked the story and he caring whether the chief liked it or not ile he was remembering that there was a sec ond hand bicycle at his house a bicycle that was painted red and had silvery handle bars of course there were thousands of bicycles like that in new orleans he told himself as the elevator stopped and let him out but he had to be SURE sure that he and sarah ann still had time to take that bicycle out of circulations jobs important marty hendricks thought as he ran along the street and hailed a passing street car not a bit important compared to a boy with blue eyes and rosy cheeks and a turned up nose he could get another job but he get another kid like andy not anywhere in the whole world I 1 and six kids too many no sir said marty hendricks to himself as he swung on to the car s tep step six kids are JUST EXACTLY A righta GT |