by Robb White
Above her the rain made a queer muffled noise on the bridge and on each side of her it made a different noise as it fell into the river and on the ground. But where she was there seemed to be a slice where there wasn't any noise at all.
Sadness seemed to come down on her like a fog. She listened to the rain, knowing that it was cold and miserable, and wondered where Tony was now. Was he riding along in somebody's car? Or w^as he standing somewhere beside the highway waiting, and listening, the cold rain pouring down on him?
Would she ever find him again? Candy wondered. And slowly she began to be afraid that she never would. The world was so big and Tony, blind and wandering, homeless, motherless, lost, could be anywhere.
Candy gritted her teeth to keep from crying and hugged her knees harder.
She saw the blaze of lightning strike somewhere and automatically began to count ''one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and . . ." but the thunder drowned out the ''eight." Eight miles away, she figured.
She hoped that the lightning wouldn't strike any more. She had never heard of it striking a bridge, but, just the same, she didn't like the weird light it made, and the thunder bothered her.
Then the noise of the rain seemed to die a little. Candy listened hard, tring to find out if it was stopping or if it was just a lull for a minute or two.
She was leaning forward, listening hard, and she heard the other noise.
Somewhere—near her—something was breathing.
For a long, long time Candy sat perfectly still, not breathing, not moving even her eyes—just listening.
Something was breathing. It was soft, steady breathing and close to her.
She felt her own fingernails digging into her legs and she eased up a little and let her breath come shivering out of her mouth.
The lull ended and the rain began to fall even harder.
The noise of it drowned out the soft breathing, but Candy knew that it was still there.
She was absolutely terrified. Not being able to hear it for the rain made her begin to think that whatever was there was coming closer, creeping up on her.
Candy could feel her own mouth straining open, and the scream began to come up her throat.
Just in time she clamped her teeth shut and choked back the noise. Maybe, she hoped, the thing didn't even know she was there. She hadn't made any noise on the grass, and it was pitch black dark. Maybe she could get away.
Moving only an inch at a time. Candy lowered her hands until she could feel the grass with her palms. She moved her hands out—afraid every second that she would touch the thing that was breathing—until she could push herself up.
On her feet, her knees like water, Candy turned very slowly and took a step. The dread of hitting a tin can or something that would make a noise was like a heavy weight on her.
She took another step, and another, going back the way she had come. At the fourth step she stopped and hstened, but could hear nothing through the noise of the rain.
Ahead and above she could see the edge of the bridge and she could see where the darkness thinned a little. It seemed to her to be miles away.
She was halfway out from under the bridge when the lightning struck.
There was a flash, and on top of it the sky split wide open. Candy could feel the blast of the thunder shaking the ground.
And under the bridge it was brighter than any daylight.
Candy raced out from under the bridge. She shppcd and fell on the wet clay, scrambled up, and tried to find the path leading back to the road.
The cold rain whipped dovMi on her, but she didn't feel it as she ran, gasping, and began to climb up the steep path.
Then, behind her, in the darkness under the bridge, a voice cried. There was fear in it and tears, and it stopped Candy as though she had hit a stone wall.
''Mother. Mother!'' the voice cried.
And it was Tony's voice.
CHAPTER
12
Candy stood perfectly still, the rain driving down on her shoulders. The sound of Tony's voice died away, but in her memory she could still hear it. It was as lonely as the evening star and full of a yearning without hope.
The lightning flashed and she saw him standing up. He was holding out his hands, palms up, his arms bent a little. He looked as though he were holding out his arms for someone who was not there.
She slithered back down the path which was now a thin stream of clay and water. She had an odd sensation when she went under the bridge and the rain abruptly stopped coming down on her.
She walked toward where she had seen him in the lightning and at last she could see him in the darkness.
'Tony," she said.
She heard him draw in his breath, and it caught in a half gasp at the end. Then, whispering, he cried, ''Oh, Candy/"
"Hello, Tony."
"Where are you?"
She saw the dim outline he made reaching toward her. "Right here," she said, and walked forward a little until his reaching fingers touched her arms. He raised one hand and
touched her face, his fingertips hghtly touching her eyes and nose and hps.
'Tou're wet/' he said.
''It's raining hard."
"Is there—is there " But his voice trailed off. His hands
left her, and when the lightning flashed again she saw him standing there with his hands over his face and his shoulders jerking as he cried and tried not to make any noise.
Candy waited, her throat aching. The close thunder shook the bridge and the ground, and died away.
At last he began to talk again. His voice was husky and uneven as he said, "I was—I was kind of scared, Candy."
"Me, too."
"The thunder must've waked me up. I didn't remember where I was, I guess. And I got scared."
"I was scareder than you were, Tony. I came doun under here to get out of the rain and I was sitting down when I heard something breathing. It was close to me and it sounded like a bear or something. You don't know what scared means, Tony!"
"What was it?" he asked.
"You."
He suddenly laughed. "I don't breathe like a bear."
"Yes, you do. At least when you're asleep."
"It's a good thing I didn't hear you breathing," Tony declared. "I'd've probably jumped right in the river because I was scared to start with."
Candy shivered hard as her wet clothes clung to her. "I'm cold. Let's build a fire."
"What time is it?" he asked.
Candy was feeling around on the ground with her hands. "I don't know. After nine, though." Up close under the bridge the floods had left plenty of wood for a fire. It was good and dry, and Candy brought an armful of it down close to the river and piled it up. Tony brought some, too, and he had a
match. Way up under the bridge Candy found some dry, withered grass and got the fire started with it. The yellow light flowed out a little way on the dark running water and made huge, wavery shadows up among the trusses of the bridge.
Candy took off her shirt and propped it up on three sticks to dry. ''Let's sit down/' she said, touching Tony's elbow lightly.
'Tve got a blanket/' he said, and began to feel around for it.
Candy found the blanket when the lightning flashed. Rolled up inside it there were two cans of soup, his pencils and shoelaces, and what felt like a picture in a frame.
They spread the blanket out near the fire and sat down.
''This is a funny place for both of us to be, isn't it? How'd you get here anyway?" Candy asked.
"I was hungry," Tony told her. "In the gas truck Stan offered to give me some of his lunch, but I didn't want to take it. So I asked him to let me out at the first bridge he came to because Mr. Stinson had given me a bone with some meat on it."
"What for?"
"So I could catch some crabs the way we did."
"But there wouldn't be any crabs in fresh water."
"Oh." Then he laughed. "I wasted a lot of time, didn't I? So then I
decided to stay here until it was dark so nobody would catch me. Then I was sort of sleepy because I didn't sleep much last night after that Mr. Thornton came and talked to me. So I went to sleep."
"Tony," Candy said, "I'm sorry for what my father did. He just didn't understand."
Tony's voice was suddenly bitter. "Why does he keep picking at me? Why doesn't he leave me alone. Candy?"
"He doesn't understand. But he doesn't mean to be mean to you, Tony. Honest he doesn't. He just thinks you'd be better off in that place in St. Augustine. He thinks you'd like it"
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Tony said fiercely, '7 would not. I know all about those places. I've been in one."
In the firelight she could see that his fingers were digging into his knees and his lips were set in angry bitterness. Slowly, though, he relaxed.
''After the town blew up/' he said slowly, as though telling her a stor% *'I didn't remember much for a long time. But I knew that I was in a hospital somewhere. I remember the way it smelled. And at first there were lots of people in there with me, but they went away one at a time and finally I was there almost by myself."
He stopped, as though trying to remember, and Candy waited.
''I was all bandaged up. My whole head was bandaged up, Candy, so only my nose stuck out and there was a place in the bandage where my mouth was. I remember they used to feed me with a glass tube I could suck juice through.
"After a while I didn't hurt much any more and they took some of the bandages off. But not the ones that covered up my eyes. They took off the ones so I could eat without sucking through the tube, and finally there were only the bandages over my eyes."
He stopped again for a little and then went on. 'Tou see how it was. Candy. Everything was dark because I had those bandages on top of my eyes. But I thought that when they took those off everything would be the same again. I never even thought that it wouldn't be, so I didn't worry about anything. They told me that Mother and Dad had been killed and that was bad."
Candy turned the picture she had found in the blanket toward the fire. There were a man and a woman sitting on a sofa. The woman was beautiful. Candy thought, and the man looked a little like Tony.
''Well," Tony said quietly, "one day a lot of people came into my room in the hospital. I could hear them talking and
clinking things together, so I sat up in bed. I remember I said to them, Tou going to let me out of here today?' and a man said, Tes, Tony/ I felt fine then, Candy. I had been in there a long time and I wanted to get out. So they came over to the bed and began cutting the bandages. You know how those blunt-nosed scissors feel—sort of cool against the back of your head. Then they took the bandages away."
Candy was holding her breath, and inside she was crying because she knew what was going to happen. Suddenly she hoped that Tony wouldn't tell her any more, but he began to talk again. His voice was so low the noise of the rain almost drowned it.
''I opened my eyes, Candy, but it was still dark and I couldn't see anything. So I said, Tou haven't taken all the bandages off.' Then a lady began to cry. I could hear her, and I wondered what was the matter with her. Then a man said.
no
Tony, all the bandages are off.' Then he sort of held me by the shoulders and said, '1 ony, old man, you're blind.' I didn't believe him, so I said, 'No, you haven't taken all the bandages off.' Then the lady who was crying went out and shut the door, and after that there wasn't much noise.
''The man said, 'Do you sec that, Tony?' I didn't see anything. I thought that I felt something that was a little warm and dry on my face. So I shook my head. Then another man said, 'total.' "
Candy felt the tears running down her face, but she bit her lips so she wouldn't make any noise.
"I didn't believe them. Candy, so I reached up and felt my head. I felt all over, my eyes and ever'thing, and there weren't any bandages at all. I felt my again, and they were open. 'Then it's just time,' I said. 'I can see if you turn on the
y/^^
*' 'No, Tony/ the man said. 'TThe lights are on—a strong light is right in front of you. You're blind, Tony/
''And I was," Tony said.
Candy tried to say something, but her throat was too choked and she couldn't make a sound.
Tony went on, his voice flat and slow, ''They took me to a place for blind people then. There were a lot of children there and they were all blind, too. At first I didn't mind it so much. They taught me how to walk around without running into things or falling down. In a little while I could walk anywhere inside the wall without any trouble. But that was as far as we could go, Candy. Just inside that wall. Wherever I went, I would end up after a while with my hands against that brick wall. I can feel those bricks every time I think about it. They had ivy growing on them, but you could feel the bricks all right, and they were in my way, no matter where I went.
"Then, when I began to go to the school they had, I made up my mind to run away. You see. Candy, I was ten years old, but I had to go to classes with tiny little children—little children who had been blind all their lives, so they knew so much more than I did about Braille and everything.
"There was another thing, too," he said, and paused a moment. "I wanted to see again, Candy, and most of the others didn't. They had always been bhnd, so they didn't know what it was like to see things. I tried to tell them, but they just couldn't understand.
"So I ran away. A truck came to get the dirty clothes and I got in the back and crawled under a lot of stuff and hid."
Candy could talk now. "How'd you get to Beachton, Tony?"
"I wanted to go where it was warm all the time." Suddenly he chuckled. "You should have seen me when I first reached Florida. I was riding in the back of an open truck and all through Georgia it was so cold I thought I was going to freeze. Then the man said that we were in Florida. And it was colder there than it had been in Georgia. I 'most froze until I got
another ride. I didn't get warm that day until I got to Beach-ton. So, when I was warm, I got out and stayed. Now," he said, 'Tm running away again."
"IVe got some good news, Tony," Candy said, feehng happy again.
Tony began to shake his head. ''I ean't go baek, Candy. I've got to go somewhere else or Mr. Thomton'll catch me."
''No, he won't. Mr. Jenkins wants you to come to see him."
"Who? Mr. Jenkins?"
Candy laughed. 'Tes. Vhen he gets seasick, he's real nice. He says he's got a 'proposition' to talk about with you."
"I bet I know what that means," Tony said, his voice bitter again. Then, in a mimicking way, he said, " 'Now, little boy, for your own good you've got to go to the institute.' That's what he wants."
"If it is," Candy said threateningly, "I'll get him out in the Faraway again and I'll make him so seasick he'll wish he'd never even heard of St. Augustine."
"You been sailing with him?" Tony asked, amazed.
Candy told him about finding Mr. Jenkins marooned on the island. At the part where she tilted the boat up and dumped him out Tony laughed until his stomach hurt.
"We'll go see him tomorrow, Tony, and he'll give you a job."
Tony was silent for a moment. Then, his voice low, he said, "Maybe he'll pay me some money. Candy. Then I can eat whenever I want to. Gosh," he said, now almost whispering, "wouldn't that be wonderful!" Suddenly he laughed. "You know the first thing I'm going to do if he gives me some money? I'm going to Stinson's and I'm going to say, 'Give me three cans of pork and beans and a loaf of bread and a pound of cheese and a bottle of milk and a head of lettuce . . .' And about then old man Stinson is going to say, 'Now, Tony, now, Tony.' Then you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take my money out of my pocket and I'm going to put it down
on the counter and I'm going to say, 'Give me what I want/ " Tony laughed until he wasn't making any noise, just jiggling up and down. "Old man Stinson will fall over in a faint, I bet."
''And we'll get you a good bed, Tony. A soft one with sheets."
/> "I hope nobody has swiped my stove," he said.
"We'll get a new stove."
"If he gives me enough, Candy, I can go to a restaurant ever}^ now and then and eat a steak. I love steaks. You can come and cut them up for me because that's one thing I can't do yet."
"How do you know I won't eat up the best part while I'm cutting it for you?"
He laughed. "I'll hold on to your wrists and if you try to sneak any in your mouth I'll know it."
Then he said gravely, "Candy, suppose Mr. Jenkins finds out I can't do anything?"
"You can do things, Tony. Plenty of things."
"I can feel things with my fingers pretty well," he said. "I can tell which side of a dime is which. And I know when there's something close to me. I feel a sort of heat."
"Can you tell where I am now?"
Tony laughed. "I can put my finger right on your nose. Watch."
He poked out his finger and aimed it at her nose. He didn't miss it far, either.
"I declare," Candy said.
"Your nose sort of turns up."
"Just a little," she decided. "But how'd you know where it was?"
"I don't know how. I just know."
"So you can do lots of things. Don't worry, Tony, Mr. Jenkins will give you a job all right."
"I hope so." He twisted around a little and said, "They certainly do make the ground hard in Florida."
''How hard was it in Texas?"
''Soft/' he said, grinning. "Like a feather bed/'
Candy snorted. "Must've been hard to walk around on then. But we're going in a httle while beeause the rain's about quit/'
She felt her shirt and put it on, although it was still a little damp.
"What time is it?"
She looked at her wateh in the firelight. "Ooops/' she said. "It's after ten o'clock and I'm supposed to be home in bed by ten. I hope Mr. Corner called up and told Mother where I was. If he didn't, I won't be doing any sailing for a day or three."