Show JAMES J INSTALMENT J Synopsis M Arr nf t Arr Jar old frum the old heme bock in and is her and aunt in west of With Molly neighbor and fellow it they explore the local from a high school girl s stand point form jome s and Uncle Elmer was certainly damn decent to It must have been a shock to him to have kids round the place after that orderly routine of Even each of his golf clubs had a little shammy pouch tied over its head so it wouldn't get He spent so much energy on details like that he had no time left to enjoy the He put out a croquet set for us on his sacred and I can see now how patient he was picking up bobby pins and the caps of coke bottles He had genius for choosing the wrong kind of tweeds that were the color of straw and would have given Wyn Sundays he always had an overcoat with a velvet it made my spine creep to see it rub his pink He shaved too close and then put talcum on his he carried a show-oft handkerchief in his folded in four he'd sneeze all over the room sooner than snatch it But what's the use of kidding people who don't even know they're being kidded He was a Good and one or two of those don't do a family any CHAPTER VI But wasn't it grand and gorgeous to get back to Philly that first after nine months away Uncle took you begin to look like We had breakfast in the stall and as usual I went u the marble fountain in the v. room looking for a drink and i no water in Oil it's seeing things been carrying in your n all the while and didn't even ou It's like when you down a lighted you en round the apartment doing this that but something inside about the cigarette and always come back to pick it up j m At least I Wyn ways Pop had a button his vi Now I was the Woman in tl family and that sort of thing w. up to He always put any bu tons that fell off in the old pu and gilt cup on the It-end of the kitchen I to find plenty of and I WJ been sewing on bu tons for he he figur every other one is The house was pretty dusty old Myrtle had done a job of ing in my 1 could smell h shingles on the same as always and there was the little narrow win dow over the side entry that gave nn a glimpse out on the And th old faded photograph of when she was still a young lady u Germantown before she married int Frankford That's quite a you don't know That little strip of window wa what I used to look at when I wol up mornings as a The wooden with was set so I could just sec through Then wasn't any blind on that window IJ wasn't a real just a let into a jog in the I wa waiting for Mother to come and ca' v-h Kitty Foyle prepares herself to become a Rogers as me down to that same old morning rattler and I went to Chicago Lena packed a lunch for me because she said the news butcher's sandwiches at Princeton weren't good There were some other high school kids in the going to places like Galva and even on vacation I sat just behind them and joined in the conversation but I felt very I was going all the way to I had plenty of time to window-shop the Union Depot in That seems to me the real navel of I'm still surprised when I find white redcaps of course in the East we take it for granted redcaps should be colored At first I supposed they were pale but when they scratched their heads I noticed their hair was I bought a cheap souvenir ashtray for Pop at the Fred Harvey place and studied the models of sleeping car sections so I wouldn't act like a I hung onto my suitcase until my arm creaked because I was afraid if I gave it to a redcap he'd ask if I was taking the which I wasn't The 1 got that good old afternoon they call it The General it makes Philly at breakfast That time I really took in the the first trip I'd been too sick to Probably I didn't realize it all at but those different sensations of the trip were registering on me At North Philly there were the Old Man and just like when I went Even the platform was still as though that thun- had lasted all the They were hosing it for a hot The Old Man must have been up most of the night so as to be sure to meet arthritis and he had plenty of what of the Seeing him again I noticed he looked There were lines in his L forehead I didn't know about He didn't like the heat and that vein was in the soft place on his temple Maybe he noticed soft places in me he said me to get It was a nice safe Now I couldn't quite feci that way Mother was and I was sort of split up between Frankford and and Pop was getting old and a bit Just for a as I unpacked my and that's a queer if you stop to think about the way-things change their meaning while they go the train I'd been on seemed the only real thing I I was rummaging to get out Pop's ashtray and sorry because I hadn't thought to bring anything for Mac or Myrtle and I wanted to I think was one of the first times I didn't understand Maybe 1 never will Maybe it's better not I heard old Pop fighting to get hanging onto the banister and it took him so long to crab-walk up that I got my eyes smoothed out and had his present ready for Come to think of a kid of fourteen can be a pretty good I couldn't do it now once you let the flood go over the dam you never get back that tight I think as a matter of fact poor old Pop was lonely to see some female fixings He was pleased once when I called him a crab He was learning to let down his He took a quick look at the picture of Mother on the dresser and then back at My trunk was there Uncle sent it by express in and Pop sat and watched me You can usually tell the way a man's mind is running by what he pretends to make fun I was proud of some new summer dresses Aunt Hattie and I picked out at the Mode in Paris which was Manitou's big number for Girls and Pop saw the suppose that means He was tickled to death to sec clothes but what he said was I look at young gals and think of all the crazy things they're going to have to wear before they get I wonder they the courage to grow Pop by down to get some and I straightened up my stuff and then I talked to Myrtle on the back steps while she cut string We had on full time I was I'd been worrying maybe I'd have to do the I gave Myrtle a full i bout the Middle because got used to it again Griscom i looked a bit small 1 told her high and about is hat night after supper we sat out he Pop in the old green cr and me on a mat on the a and Nellie Sim-is stopped by to give me a but I didn't like Nellie any ter than I had They tried give me a song-and-dance about times at Frankford High but I me right back with some Manitou They boasted about their school ng and like a fool I hummed Old to them That was a because they squawked with lighter and said it was only the of My sever you said Pop hen they'd don't plump it the you nice corn fed Illinois als Tell me all about Molly and you can throw i a little information about Elmer id You the old man was knew when to treat a kid of like a woman and when to her like a That's not so The old man and I went down 0 the We went down by bus to I guess I'm a at heart because when I used to try to tell Wyn about the Shore 1 always found it hard to say it was where we Of ourse Wyn's kind of people don't hink there is any Shore unless just he right part of Cape Anywhere else the ocean is sort of a terrible and terrible but the Ocean seems to have Wyn got the idea because I remember him raying one time we stopped on a onely God must have loved he He made so much of it you how could you luote He was such plain and from Illinois The sun was good for the old and when he wasn't worrying i bout me we were swell It's all just and heat in riy mind and the cutting edges jf that Funny to hold a thing n your mind and keep it that way 1 1 Pop with his face in the i lack shade of the umbrella and the rest of him His beard grow fast enough to prevent him getting burned and the red mowed through the The was doing him good he wasn't drinking too and he was taking for his arthritis r sciatica or whatever it and it seemed to help he'd get his come down on him like that's the Irish of it I Then all of a sudden he'd snap out of it I'd feci him looking al me and he'd you got Of course I make the proper answer I He do That was the signal that meant Every filing's let's talk-Maybe I was a little shy of because he looked so strange in that half-grown Partly the beard helped because I was the only person there who knew it was really just the same old Pop under that terrible I wish I could have thrown my arms round his neck and kissed his spiky old face and said I love you Why did he have to grow a beard just damn A few times we got as far over as the Inlet and Pop took me The boatman towed us out a way and we'd anchor there in a leaky punt lowering on a string weighted with rusty I wore overalls so I didn't mind the and as long as we kept those big brandishing crabs down end of the boat I'd forget all about the Warm salt breexe and the stink of and once and a while on a gust comes the sound of that steam-piano on the Boardwalk I was in a I wasn't thinking about or wanting or scared of anything just learning what living feels It was what they call on the Pause for Station This is Station at the Ton of the And here's your favorite Kitty This is Kitty beginning to learn about herself fourteen years lovely things are going to happen to Kitty Beautiful blond men with ruddy brown shaved so and wearing creased ice cream are going to look strangely at Kitty Foyle on the Boardwalk and she walks serenely I wonder if Kitty Foyle sways gracefully from when they tum to look after or does she wobble like those women at the boarding I know now what they call What a dumb word for a sweet A skinny kid in dirty fish-smell black hair sticky with salt under a straw bare brown feet in and broken leaning over a scow and thinking she's the Lady of the The hot yellow sun spreads out into the flopping brown water like cream in iced you can't see far into only your crabbing line sloping down in be Copyright 1939 by Christopher |