Candy;

by White, Robb, 1909-1990

  She had time to see Tony only once before she left for Georgia. Mrs. Malone gave her some money and she and Tony sailed over to Beachton to get him some clothes, a hair brush and toothbrush, and some other things he needed. On the way back Candy asked him how he liked it at Mr. Jenkins's.

  Tony laughed and hugged himself. "It's fine, Candy. Mrs.

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  Malone is awful good to me. She's sent off for some Braille books and says that when they come I've got to study every day. And she makes me drink milk all the time. Is any running out of my ears?"

  "Not much," Candy said. ''How about that Jasper?"

  ''He's gloomy. Whenever he comes around he tells Mrs. Malone how mad Mr. Jenkins is going to be when he finds out."

  "I wonder if he is going to be?"

  "Mrs. Malone says he isn't. She's worked for him for forty years, and she says that if she wanted to bring a troop of soldiers to live with her, she'd do it. She's really funny. Candy, and she gets me laughing so hard sometimes I hurt."

  They were getting near Mr. Jenkins's beach, so Candy turned the Faraway to seaward and went on by it. "Tony," she said seriously, "have you been thinking any about what's going to happen if Mr. Jenkins won't help you?"

  He turned his face toward her. "Candy, let's don't talk about it. I feel good, and I wouldn't if we got to talking about that."

  "All right," Candy said. She turned the Faraway toward the beach again. "I'll write to you while I'm gone and Mrs. Malone can read it to you."

  "Will you? That'll be good. I'll write to you, too. At least I'll ask Mrs. Malone to do it for me."

  Candy ate some cookies and drank some milk with him in Mrs. Malone's kitchen. Then she had to go. "I'll see you in two weeks, Tony," she told him. "If Mr. Jenkins gets back before I do, just remind him that he told me to bring you to see him after he was seasick."

  She told them good-by and sailed back to Beachton. After mooring the Faraway, she went to Mr. Carruthers's house and told him that she was going to be gone for two weeks. "Will you take care of the Faraway for me, please?" she asked him. "You can sail her all you want to."

  "I'll bring her up in the yard if you want, Candy."

  ''Don't you want to sail her?"

  "I would enjoy a bit of sailing now and then/' he admitted.

  Candy watched his face as she asked, ''Have you seen any more smoke from the islands, Mr. Carruthers?''

  "Now that you mention it, I have not."

  "Maybe you'll sail out and try to find out where it came from. If there really was any," she said.

  He shook his head. "Too far, Candy. And I'm too blarsted old to argue with a sailboat all the way out there and back. When I was younger I could put up with the inborn, ungrateful, mule stubbornness of a sailboat, but not any more. I'll just sail her around the Bay a bit, and when she gets stubborn on me I'll break out the paddle and shove her home as undignified as I can."

  "The Magruder brothers will help you haul her out if a storm comes," Candy said. "I'll tell them to before I go."

  "Don't you worry, Candy. We'll take care of your precious saily-boat while you're up in that heathen country."

  Candy found the Magruder brothers and asked them to watch out for the Faraway and help Mr. Carruthers if the weather turned bad.

  "Where you going?" Chuck asked.

  "Up to Georgia to visit my grandmother. I'll be gone two weeks."

  "You better tote a pistol all the time, Candy. They got wild people up in Georgia," Ryan advised.

  "Oh, shucks," Candy said.

  It was wonderful up in Georgia, but Candy secretly thought that if she stayed at Grammy's very long she'd get so lazy she couldn't even get out of bed.

  She vvTote to Tony the second night she was there.

  Dear Tony:

  How are you? I'm fine, almost. How is Mrs. Malone? Has Mr. Jenkins come back yet?

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  Tony, today I rode a horse named Dolly. I rode her way back in the woods and didn't fall off at all, but I feel kind of stiff and I can't sit down on anything hard very well. I think I like riding horses almost as much as sailboats, but you can sail in a boat every day and tomorrow I don't think I can go riding again because the saddle you sit on is too hard I think.

  Tony, if Mr. Jenkins comes back before I do and gets mad and makes you go away don't run off someplace. Go to my house and stay there. Tell my dad that I told you to come and he will let you stay all right and won't tell Mr. Thornton or anybody like that. Really he won't, so just remember not to run away anywhere else if you have to.

  Tony, I've been thinking about what Mrs. Morton the lady said, and I wish you'd think about it, too, and what the man on the island said. They might be right, and you could find out if they are right by going there for a little while and seeing for yourself. I mean you could do that if Mr. Jenkins comes back and gets mad or anything.

  Supper is ready now and Grammy is ringing the bell, so I have to go.

  Yours truly.

  Candy.

  In a few days she got a letter written by Mrs. Malone.

  Dear Candy:

  Mrs. Malone is going to write this because I'm too lazy. Ha, ha. How are you? I'm fine. No, Mr. Jenkins hasn't come back yet. I'm sorry you can't sit down.

  Candy, I have been thinking about what you said. I will keep on thinking about it.

  The weather has been fine but it rained a little last night. Not much though.

  I got some Braille books but IVe forgotten how to read it but I will learn again, and Mrs. Malone says she will learn, too, because it makes her sleepy to read books in ink print. If you would learn, I could write to you. I hope you will come back soon.

  Yours truly,

  Tony.

  Below that there was some more writing.

  Tony is fine, Candy, and misses you a lot. He is getting fatter every day and looking better. Now don't you worry about Mr. Jenkins a single bit. He is really a dear little man and will see to it that Tony is cared for, so don't you worry about that.

  Love, Annie Malone.

  The two weeks went fast, and when they were gone Mr. Pritchard came up in the car to drive them home. They did not get back until late that night, so Candy waited until the next day to go across to Mr. Jenkins's house.

  The Faraway was just as clean and shipshape as she had been when Candy left. The Magruder brothers showed up just as she was taking the stops off the sails. ''Hi," she said. 'Tm back.''

  Ryan looked at his younger brother. ''Says she's back," he said.

  "That's what I thought she said. Where's she been—away?"

  "The boat looks fine," Candy said. "Thanks."

  "She ought to. Mr. Carruthers made us pohsh her every single day," Ryan declared.

  "You owe us a hundred dollars for taking care of her," Chuck said.

  "A hundred dollars apiece," Ryan decided. , "Is that all? Hardly worth thinking about. Well, remind me of it sometime," Candy told them as she raised the mainsail.

  "Right now is okay by us," Chuck said.

  Candy just smiled and raised the jib.

  "I don't think she's going to pay us at all," Ryan said.

  "If she doesn't, we'll chop her head off."

  Ryan turned toward Candy. "When you get back, we're going to chop your head off. Candy."

  "Fine. See you later." She slipped the mooring and was glad to feel the Faraway come to life under her hands.

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  As she sailed under a light wind toward the green of Mr. Jenkins's land, she wondered what was going to happen now.

  She turned and looked out toward the islands when she cleared the Point. No wisp of smoke showed, and they were just a lonely faint green line between sea and sky.

  CHAPTER

  19

  Tony was sitting in the sun, his back against a tree. In his lap there was a big gray-bound book. He was feehng one page of it with both hands.

  Candy's feet didn't make any n
oise as she walked toward him across the clipped green grass. As she got closer she could see how he frowned when his fingers stopped moving across the page of the book.

  Tony looked fine. He had gotten a haircut which had smoothed out the rough spots she had left. He didn't look so thin, either, and he was sun-tanned now so that a lot of freckles showed on his face. He was dressed well, with the buttons buttoned in the right holes, and everything clean. He was barefooted, and when his hands stopped on the page of the book, his toes would curl over while he frowned.

  Candy stood for a moment looking down at him and at his hands. There was no print on the pages of the book-only lines of little raised dots. The fingers of his right hand walked along, feeling the dots, while his left hand seemed to hold down the line.

  "Hello, Tony," she said.

  He raised his head and smiled, his teeth looking white and clean. ''Hi, Candy!" he said, closing the book and getting up. "When did you get back?"

  ''Last night, but it was late. How are you, Tony?"

  "Fine. Vm still blind, though."

  ''But you can read now.''

  "Not much." He held out the book. "You know what this great big book is all about?"

  The book was at least two feet wide and longer than that, and four or five inches thick. "It must be something important to be so big," she declared.

  Tony snorted. "Fll read some of it to you," he said, sitting down again. Candy sat down on the grass in front of him as he opened the book and felt along the edge of the page with his left hand. Then he got his right hand ready. "Now, listen," he said.

  He moved his pointer finger slowly along, feeling the little dots. Slowly he read, "There—is—a—bird—in—the—tree. It— is—a—blue—bird. See—the—blue—bird—in—the—tree?"

  Suddenly he clapped the book shut. "That's what this book is all about," he said scornfully. "See-the-bird-in-the-tree. I could read that stuff when I was five years old. And why does a book for the blind go around saying 'see' all the time?"

  "Maybe it wants you to pretend you're not blind."

  Tony laughed. "Boy, that's one thing you can't do. I tried it once and almost broke my neck."

  Candy had to laugh. Then Tony held out his right arm. "Look at that! Mrs. Malone gave it to me. Isn't it a beaut?"

  Tony was wearing a wrist watch. Candy felt a little embarrassed as she wondered what good it did him, but she said, "It's good-looking, Tony."

  He touched the watch with the fingers of his left hand. The crystal popped open on a hinge when he pushed a little button. Then he felt around the face of the watch with his fingers. "It's quarter past ten," he said proudly.

  Candy looked at her own watch and he was right. "How'd you tell?"

  He showed her then. His watch had big, strong-looking

  hands and, instead of numbers, it had a raised dot around the face for each five minutes. '1 can't tell time down to the second," he confessed, ''but who wants to know that bad anyway?

  Candy laughed. ''Has Mr. Jenkins come back yet?"

  "No, but he's coming today. At least he said he was."

  "I got back just in time," Candy said.

  "I was afraid you wouldn't. Can you sit down all right, Candy?"

  She chuckled. "I got over it after a while. You know what I did while I was up there? I tried to train a horse so he could take a blind person where he wanted to go, but it didn't work. Did you know that horses are really dumb? They haven't got any common sense at all. I wonder why people are always talking about 'horse sense'? Because horses haven't got any sense."

  "You just wasted your time," Tony said. "No blind person would even get up on a horse. I used to ride all the time in Texas, but I wouldn't even go near a horse now."

  "Oh well, I didn't have anything else to do." Candy sat in silence for a while. She wanted to talk to Tony about going to the institute, but she didn't know how to begin.

  Tony, too, sat in silence. At last, though, he said quietly, "I talked to Mrs. Morton, Candy."

  "How'd she find you?" Candy asked, a little alarmed.

  "Oh, everybody knows I'm over here, but they don't bother me."

  Candy relaxed. "What did Mrs. Morton say?"

  "You know," he said, shrugging.

  Slowly Candy asked, "What did you tell her, Tony?"

  " 'No,' " he said.

  "Even if Mr. Jenkins doesn't do anything?"

  "I still won't go," he said.

  Candy wished that she could talk to him the way Mrs. Morton and Dr. Daniels could, but she didn't know how. She

  just blurted out, 'Tony, you're just stubborn as a mule, that's all."

  He felt for the edges of the big book in his lap, lifted it, and carefully put it down on the grass beside him. Then he turned his face toward her. His voice was low as he said slowly, ''No, Fm not. Candy. I've been thinking and thinking about it. Fm just scared to go, that's all."

  "Scared?" she asked. "What of, Tony?"

  "Because—because I won't hope anv more if I go, Candy."

  "Hope?"

  His fingers felt along the top of the clipped grass and he pulled out a stem and pulled it apart. "I want to see again. I keep hoping that I will. All the time. Candy. I keep thinking about that day when I was riding my bicycle down the street in Texas City. I could see. I was going past a red pick-up truck and a man was taking a big box out of it. Then, all of a sudden, I was blind.

  "You see. Candy? When you go to an institution you have to stop hoping. Nobody hopes there. Most of the children have always been blind, so they never had any hope anyhow. And the rest of them give up after a while."

  He kept pulling up pieces of grass and tearing them to pieces. "I don't want to give up," he said, almost cring. "I want to see again. Candy! I've got to see again."

  Candy wanted to help him so much that she hurt all inside, but she didn't know how she could. She didn't want to kill his hope, but she remembered the doctor in Miami.

  "Somewhere," Tony went on slowly, "I'll find a doctor who will do something. The ones in the hospital gave up too soon. And that one in Miami—he wouldn't do anything. But I'll find one somewhere. Candy. I'm not like the children who never could see—my eyes were all right once and they can be all right again. I know it."

  "That doctor in Miami said that there was a doctor who might be able to do something," Candy said, remembering. "But that he was sick."

  Tony nodded. ''Maybe he'll get well. Maybe there'll be another one who'll find out how to make me see again. Mrs. Malone read to me out of a book how they could operate on your eyes and put in new things for ones that weren't any good. If they can do that, I can keep on hoping, can't I, Candy?"

  "Yes, Tony."

  ''So I'm not going to an institution. I don't care what happens to me, I'm not going.''

  "All right, Tony."

  She heard a car on the gravel driveway and twisted around as it drove up to the door beside the house.

  "Who's that?" Tony asked.

  Candy got up and watched. Mrs. Malone came out of the house and waited as Mr. Jenkins got out of the car. He went in, waving his arms around and telling people what to do.

  "He's back," Candy said.

  Tony didn't say anything, but she saw his fingers tightening their grip on the big book.

  "He's gone in the house," she said.

  "I wish," Tony said slowly, "I v^sh that I didn't have to go talk to him. I wish that it was all over and that I knew what he was going to say—one way or the other." Then, sadly, he said, "I wish he hadn't even come back. That he wouldn't ever come back. Then I could just go on staying here with Mrs. Malone."

  The door of the house swung slowly open and Jasper came stalking across the porch. Candy w^atched him as he walked across the wide lawn toward them. He held his head back as though he smelled something bad and didn't want to see what his feet were walking on.

  "Jasper's coming," she whispered to Tony.

  Tony smiled finally. "I guess we're going to know something in a
minute."

  Jasper came up and halted. "Mr. Jenkins will see you now," he said coldlv-

  "All right," Candy said. She took the book as Tony stood up. She started away with liim toward the house.

  Jasper swung his arm out stiffly and said, ''Not you, miss. Mr. Jenkins gave me instructions to bring the blind boy to him. He did not mention vou, miss.''

  Candv and Tony stopped, and Candy looked up at Jasper. He made her so mad that she couldn't think of anything to say, so she said, ''Oh, shucks. Come on, Tony."

  But Jasper still held out his arm, barring her way.

  Candy glared up at him, her eyes flashing. "If you don't get out of my way, I'll call Mrs. Malone," she told him.

  He lowered his arm. "Very well, miss. But I warn you—Mr. Jenkins is going to throw you out."

  "Oh, shucks," Candy said, touching Tony's elbow.

  Mr. Jenkins was sitting in a huge chair of carved dark wood. The arms of the chair came almost up to his shoulders and the back of it towered up above his head. In front of him was a spindly-legged little table on which there was a plate of sand-xdches and a glass of milk.

  "Good afternoon," he said, nodding to her and Tony. Then he glared at Jasper. "Take this milk out and get it properly warmed."

  Jasper looked as if he were going to faint as he grabbed up the glass and almost ran, saying, "Yes, sir. Right away, sir."

  Mr. Jenkins ate one of the sandwiches and looked up at Tony. "Sorr}' I was away so long. And a goose chase! Didn't find a thing I didn't already have. Now, Tony, I have everything arranged for you. First, you're going up to Morristown— that's in New Jersey. You'll stay there a few weeks while you get acquainted with your dog."

  "Dog?" Tony said.

  "Have to have a dog, of course. The Seeing Eye Foundation in Morristown will fix you up with that."

  "A Seeing Eye dog?" Tony asked, his voice a whisper.

  "Of course. Vhat else?"

  ''Of my own?'' Tony asked.

  "Naturally. Then "

  But Tony turned toward Candy. His voice was trembling and so were his lips. ''Did you hear, Candy? A dog. A real dog of mv own! A Seeing Eye dog to go with me wherever I go. Oh, hoyr