Candy;

by White, Robb, 1909-1990

  She turned left and walked, step by step, her arms held out in front of her.

  "More left," Dr. Daniels said.

  She knew that she was close to the door now and she walked ahead confidently.

  She lifted her left foot and swung it forward and let it down. There was nothing there. Her foot kept going down. Suddenly Candy felt as though she were falling into a tremendously deep, pitch-black hole. As she lost all her balance and went on falling she cried out a little, struggling in the air.

  Hands caught her by the shoulders and pulled her back. In silence Dr. Daniels unwrapped the bandages and when she could see again she looked down.

  She had stepped off the porch, which was no more than six inches high. If she had gone on falling, she would have landed on smooth sand.

  Dr. Daniels went back and sat down. He picked up a crab and broke off the claws. "You see, Candy," he said quietly, "being blind is a problem. Now it takes most men who can see a good deal of their time to make a living and support their families. But a blind man must spend a whale of a lot of that valuable time just taking care of the problem of not being able to see. So a blind man must learn so much more than other men just to stay even with them. The only place to learn those things is in a school for the blind."

  Tony said bitterly, "You're against me, too, aren't you?"

  "Afraid so, Tony," Dr. Daniels said.

  Tony stood up and reached for his cane. "Let's go, Candy," he said, his voice strained and his face white.

  Candy looked at Dr. Daniels helplessly.

  He cracked the crab claw open with his teeth and drew out the long hunk of white, firm meat. He bit it in half and chewed it as he gazed out at the ocean.

  Then he said quietly, "Sit down, Tony. And stop getting mad every time someone doesn't agree with you."

  Tony sat down slowly.

  "The best place for you is in an institute. The next best place is with Mr. Jenkins. So you and Candy go to see him. If he won't help you, I want you to go to the institute. Understand, Tony?"

  Tony gripped his cane with both hands so hard that Candy was afraid he was going to break it. He didn't say a word.

  "Go up there for six months, Tony. Make up your mind to stay six months. If, after that, you don't like it, run away."

  Tony nodded his head slowly.

  "Good. Now let's stop all this arguing and eat something," Dr. Daniels said.

  They talked while they cracked the crabs open and ate the meat. After a while Tony got happy again and they were all laughing.

  Then it was time to go. Tony and Candy thanked Dr. Daniels for letting Tony stay. Tony, to show off, started down the path, walking fast.

  Candy and the doctor followed him slowly. When Tony was out of hearing distance Dr. Daniels said quietly, "Candv, take care of that boy. Make him change his mind. If you don't, his life is going to be tragic. I tell you. Candy, a blind person without special training cannot make his way. Sooner or later Tony will end up in an institution and it should be sooner. It should be right now."

  "All right," Candy said. "Fll talk to him."

  "You're the only person he seems to believe in/' Dr. Daniels remarked. ''He'll listen to you, so you've got to make him change his mind."

  "He listens to you, too," she said.

  "But I've done all I could and he's leaving."

  Candy looked up at him. "Are you ever coming back, Dr. Daniels?"

  He took the pipe out of his mouth, looked at it hard, and put it back again. "I don't know," he said quietly. "A week ago I would have said that I would never leave this island. Now I don't know."

  Candy asked quietly, "Are you very sick, Dr. Daniels?"

  "I don't know," he said. "I need a little more time. I may get it. I may not." He looked at her. "Could you come back here in a month, Candy?"

  "If you want me to."

  "Not before, though/' he said seriously.

  "All right. In a month from today."

  They had reached the sand, and Tony was waiting for them, his face happy. "Good luck, Tony," Dr. Daniels said, shaking hands with him.

  "Same to you," Tony said. "Thanks for letting me stay."

  Candy led Tony out into the water and helped him get aboard the Faraway.

  "Good-by," she called to the doctor on the beach.

  He waved his hand.

  The wind was strong, the sea boisterous, so that in a little while they were clear of the islands and making their easting for a straight shot into the Bay. Candy got the Faraway trimmed exactly and then let Tony hold the tiller. But soon he gave it back, saying that it didn't mean anything to him. However, he liked to handle the sheets when she tacked. To let him practice, she went from tack to tack, and Tony showed that he had a natural feel for the first sign of the wind filling the

  sails. After a while he would clamp the sheets before she had to tell him.

  At last Candy turned down wind and headed toward the mouth of the Bay. There was nothing for Tony to do then, so they both relaxed as the Faraway ran for home.

  ''What did he tell you, Tony? About himself?" she asked.

  "Nothing."

  ''Not even his name?"

  "Nope."

  Candy thought for a moment. "Then you actually don't know who he is or where he is, do you, Tony?"

  "Nope."

  "That makes me feel a little better then. I didn't break my promise all the way, did I? And if I don't tell you who he is, that'll be all right, won't it?"

  "Sure. I don't care who he is. I just know I like him. He's like my father was, a little."

  "He's nice."

  "I hope he gets over whatever's the matter with him and that I'll see him again sometime."

  "Me, too."

  Mr. Jenkins's huge door swung open again and the icy man appeared. This time, though. Candy wasn't so afraid of him. "Has Mr. Jenkins come back yet?" she asked.

  "No."

  Candy looked at her watch. It was after three. "Let's wait then, Tony."

  "That would be perfectly useless," the man said.

  Candy looked up at him and smiled. "We'll wait," she said.

  "Very well, if you wish," he said, saying "very" as though it were spelled "vedy." Then he closed the door.

  Candy and Tony sat down on the stone porch. The sun was warm on them and, except where the sea water had burned the grass brown, everything was green and pretty.

  They had been sitting there for five or ten minutes, not talking much, when Mrs. Malone came along a path.

  "Well, bless my soul/' she said, seeing them.

  ''We're waiting for Mr. Jenkins,'' Candy said.

  ''Ah, you poor darlin's. He's changed his mind. He called up this mornin' and said he was going to Cuba. He'd heard about an orchid down there."

  Candy could only stare at her, with her mouth dropped open. Then she slowly turned and looked at Tony.

  He was sitting with his hands in his lap, his head up, and his Wind eyes looking straight ahead. He began to rub one of his thumbs with the other one.

  Candy's voice was gone as she asked, "How long, Mrs. Malone? How long this time?"

  "A few weeks, he said."

  It was as though somebody had turned off the sun, made the air cold and the grass and trees dark. "Weeks?" Candy asked, whispering.

  "He said he would have to go up in the mountains," Mrs. Malone told her. "So it'll be a few weeks. But what's the matter, darlin'? You look as though somebody had done something perfectly awful to you."

  Candy looked up at Mrs. Malone. "We're in trouble. A lot of trouble, and Mr. Jenkins was going to get us out of it. But he won't come home."

  "Now, bless your heart, child, tell me what's the matter." Mrs. Malone sat down between them on the stones.

  Candy told her about finding Mr. Jenkins on the island and how, after he got over being seasick, he had told her to bring Tony to see him. "Maybe he'll give him a job," Candy said.

  Mrs. Malone looked at Tony. "Don't see why not. You look hke a good stro
ng lad, Tony, me boy."

  Candy went on. "But there's no place for him to hide now.

  Especially not for weeks, Mrs. Malone. They'd find him and make him go to the institution."

  ''Institution!" Mrs. Malone exclaimed. ''What in the world have you done, boy?"

  "Done?" Tony asked blankly.

  "Done!" Candy said. "He hasn't done anything."

  "Well, then, why do they want to send him to the institution?" Mrs. Malone asked, bewildered.

  Candy stared at her and then, suddenly, she realized that Mrs. Malone didn't know. Softly she said, "Tony's blind, Mrs. Malone."

  Mrs. Malone sat for an instant in silence. Then she hugged Tony's shoulders. "That's fine, Tony! You and I are going to get along just right because you're the only man I know who can't see how big and fat I am."

  Tony smiled a little. And Candy saw tears swimming in Mrs. Malone's eyes.

  "Now start all over again, darlin'," she said. Then she laughed. "You had me all confused because I thought you meant the reform school when you said 'institution.' "

  Candy and Tony laughed, too. "No." Then Candy told her how Tony either had to have a job or go to the institute. And as long as Mr. Jenkins was away Tony would have to go somewhere to hide.

  "Ha!" Mrs. Malone said. "You stay right here vdth Annie Malone, me boy. That's what you do. And if any of them brigands from the institute come for you, I'll lay on 'em with a shillelagh. And if that doesn't persuade 'em, I'll sick Jasper on 'em. Yes, Tony, you stay right here."

  "Can I really?" Tony asked.

  "Let's have no argument about it. You're stayin' right here. I'll fix you up a little room on the ground floor so you won't be bothered with steps, and I'll see to it that you get a little meat on those bones. You're skinny as a rail fence."

  "What'll Mr. Jenkins say when he finds out?" Tony asked.

  "Mr. Jenkins! Ah, the dear httle fellow. He learned many years ago not to interfere with Annie Malone an' her doin's, the dear." She hugged Tony again. "Don't give him a thought. You're stayin' right here, boy."

  The sun was shining again and it was warm.

  Tony said very gravely, ''Thank you, Mrs. Malone."

  She hugged him and laughed. Then they all laughed as Jasper stuck his head out of the door and looked down at them, his face scornful.

  CHAPTER

  18

  Alone Candy walked slowly back to the beach. She glanced at the greenhouse as she passed it, and when she got down on the sand she remembered the night Tony had gone off in the darkness leaving the Faraway secured to his walking stick.

  She remembered many things as she got into the Faraway and raised sail. Under way, she suddenly drew in a long breath and slowly let it out. She felt exactly as though she had been carrying something very heavy for a long time and then someone had come up to her and said, "Here, let me carry that awhile.''

  She felt almost happy as she started across the Bay toward the beach along Front Street. Tony was safe for a few weeks, she decided. And tomorrow, or sometime when they were just talking, she would do what Dr. Daniels had asked her to do. Maybe, she thought, she could persuade Tony to go to the institute after all.

  It depended on Mr. Jenkins, she decided. But, in case he wouldn't help Tony enough, then Tony should be all ready, in his mind, to go to St. Augustine. She would talk to him about it the first chance she got.

  And Dr. Daniels had changed a lot, Candy decided. She didn't know exactly how, but he didn't act quite the way he

  had when he first talked to her, or when she was taking him out to the island.

  Gradually Candy began to believe that everything was getting straightened out. At least, she reasoned, nothing else bad was going to happen now before Mr. Jenkins got back. That would give her a few weeks to persuade Tony that he ought to go to the institute. After she had done that, if Mr. Jenkins didn't do anything for Tony, things wouldn't be so bad.

  And at last Candy thought about the Faraway. She let go the sheets and tiller and let the sails slat as she reached up into the hiding place forward of the centerboard well and got the For Sale sign. Sailing again, she looked at the sign in her lap. Suddenly she took the sign by the corner and threw it away.

  That made her feel so good that she began to sing. She was still singing when she discovered the Magruder brothers out in their rowboat.

  ''Hey! Candy!" Ryan yelled as she passed them.

  ''What d you want?" she yelled back.

  "What are you hollering about?"

  "That's not hollering, that's singing," she told them.

  "Sounds like hollering to me," Ryan declared.

  Candy spun the Faraway around on the other tack and aimed her straight at the rowboat. She kept the sheets taut and the sails driving as she bore down on the Magruder brothers.

  Chuck yelled, "She's going to ram us!"

  Ryan stood up and stuck his fist up in the air. "Abandon ship, men," he ordered, and both of them dived over the side and started swimming.

  Candy was laughing so hard she almost did run down the rowboat. Recovering in time, she whipped the Faraway around and let the sheets go so that she skimmed past the rowboat, missing it by inches.

  Ryan and Chuck swam over to the Faraway. Hanging on to the rub rail, they looked up at her wetly. "We got some good news for you," Ryan said.

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  ■I

  Candy spun the Faraway around on the other tack and aimed her straigl^t at the rowboat

  'Teah, good news/' Chuck said, his voice full of scorn.

  ''Who do you think is going to buy the Faraway, Candy?" Ryan asked.

  ''Who?" she asked, keeping her secret.

  "Old Hawk MacNair. He's already got the money from his old man."

  "Is that so?" Candy said, her voice sad, but inside she was laughing.

  "Yeah. Old Yak Yak MacNair."

  "We knew you'd be glad to hear that, Candy," Chuck said.

  "Yeah. Now you can see the Faraway every day—with old Hawk in her."

  "Ha, ha, ha," Candy said dryly. "I've changed my mind."

  "You're not going to sell her?"

  "Nope."

  "Not even to Hawk?"

  "Specially not to him."

  "Good. Now maybe we can get to go sailing in her."

  "We're going right now," Ryan declared, starting to climb in.

  Candy pulled the tiller out of the rudder post and held it back. "Wait till you're invited or I'll let this tiller down on you."

  Ryan slid back into the water. "Well, when are we going to get invited?" he demanded.

  "Right now. Come aboard."

  For the rest of the afternoon she and the Magruder brothers sailed around the Bay. It was a lot of fun, especially when Ryan fell overboard and Chuck wouldn't go back and pick him up until he said, "Please, Mr. Magruder."

  At last she sailed them over to their drifting rowboat and let them out. Alone again, the wind almost gone. Candy sailed to her mooring and tied up. As she walked toward the warehouse through the sunset she felt good.

  Her father was turning off the lights when she got there.

  ''It's beginning to look like something/' Candy decided, as she gazed at the rows of boxes now all neatly staeked up.

  ''At least Fm baek in business/' her father said, eoniing out and loeking the steel doors. "Only I owe so mueh money that it's going to take us a year or so to get baek to where we were before the hurrieane. That'll be all right, though. Candy. We've been poor before, haven't we?"

  ''I guess so," Candy said. "But I always had as mueh fun as Hawk MaeNair and he isn't poor."

  Her father laughed as he held the ear door open for her. "Hope I can get another year out of this old jalopy," he said, getting in. "By the way, I called up that doctor in Miami. The one vou took Tony to."

  "What'd he say?"

  "He said that I didn't owe him twenty-five dollars. That he didn't charge for a boy like Tony."

  "Oh, that's good. I've been worried about that," Candy declared.<
br />
  He drove along slowly. "Heard you were going to sell the Faraway, Candy," he said, as he nodded to a man he knew.

  "Not any more, Dad."

  "I was wondering," he said. "She may not belong to vou, really."

  "Yes, she does, Dad. I found out about the man who gave her to me."

  "What'd you find out?"

  "That he owned her all right and could give her away if he wanted to."

  "I'm glad of that. But he must be a curious citizen or else rich. By the way, had you heard that I'm throwing you and your mother out of the house?"

  "What for? Don't we cook for you and make up your bed and sweep up all the ashes you drop on the rug?"

  "I admit that you do. But—out you go anyway. Both of you."

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  'To Grammy's?" Candy asked.

  'Tep/'

  ''Oh, boy! Do you think she's still got my horse?"

  "She's had a horse for as long as I can remember, so I guess she has."

  Then Candy suddenly remembered. "How long are we going to stay, Dad?"

  "Only two weeks this time. Grammy's going out West to see my worthless brother. But maybe you can go back for a while later in the summer."

  Candy felt all right again. Two weeks wasn't long, and she liked it up in Georgia. It was different from Beachton, for there wasn't any water except ponds and little rivers. But there were horses to ride and you could catch fish in the ponds, and it was a lazy kind of life with Grammy in her big old rambling house.

  "While you're gone I'm going to get the porch put back on again and I'm going to have the house painted. That's going to be a surprise, so don't mention it to your mother."

  "All right. I wonder if there're any Georgia thumpers this year?" she asked, remembering the great big grasshoppers that weren't even good for fish bait.

  "Always have been."

  "And that old rooster she had. What was his name?"

  "Bottle Top?"

  "No." Candy laughed. "His name was Can Opener." . "He'll be there. He's too tough to die."

  Candy was happy as she went into the house and found her mother already packing.