Sticks and Stones - Lynn Hall (smarten punctuation)
Page 14
He knew Floyd was dead.
For the past several hours Tom had lain motionless, thinking it out. He was surprised by the strength of his grief over Floyd. He had not liked Floyd; in fact, he had nearly hated him. But that seemed to strengthen Tom’s remorse rather than weaken it. He knew the guilt would always be with him.
But I didn’t want him to die. I really didn’t. The words echoed through his mind. Suddenly he thought, Did I want to die?
He had read enough about psychology to have some understanding of death wishes and subconscious suicide urges. It was a startling thought, and it filled his stomach with a trembling sickness.
No, he argued, it was just that the defroster went on the blink and I lost control going around that curve. It could have happened to anyone.
But he knew his driving had been careless, too fast for road conditions and visibility. Not at all like his usual cautious driving.
Finally he admitted, I guess I was trying to hurry up and get away from Floyd.
Get away. The words stuck in his mind. Get away, run away. Self-destruct. Subconscious suicide, the final act of escape.
In the stillness of the night-muted hospital Tom began to see a pattern in his actions of the past weeks—his illness at Christmastime that allowed a reprieve from the unpleasantness at school; the shutting off of his mind that resulted in failing grades; his cutting himself off from the most valuable friendship he had ever known for fear of public finger-pointing.
The pattern seemed so clear, in retrospect, that Tom marvelled at his inability to see it sooner. The talkers and the pointers had undermined him. They had touched him with the acid of their suspicions, and the corrosion had spread until he himself had lost sight of the truth.
There was nothing wrong with me at all, until I started listening to their whispers, Tom thought. They brought me down, and I let them. I just placidly let them tell me what I was, and then believed them. “Them.” None of those people knew anything about me, really. There’s probably nothing wrong with my masculinity, only with my stupid head, for not being surer of myself.
The tempo around him started a subtle upswing as night became morning. Nurses changed shifts. His roommate stirred and coughed in the other bed. Breakfast carts rattled down the hall.
During the morning Tom’s mind went over all he could remember reading about people’s self-destructive tendencies. The pattern was there in his own recent actions, he admitted. But it wasn’t strong enough. He recognized it now, and in recognition it lost its potence.
Then the day nurse swished in and began checking and adjusting his bandages. “How are you feeling today?” she asked.
“Better. In fact, fine. I feel fine.” His smile was limited by the bandages beneath his chin, but it was a smile nonetheless.
She finished and started to leave. On her way out the door she said, “Oh, Tom, you have a visitor here.”
Tom heard footsteps, felt someone near his bed.
“I didn’t think they were ever going to let me in to see you.”
Tom reached for his friend’s hand.
“Ward. I’m glad you came.”
About the Author
For several years Lynn Hall has devoted herself full-time to writing books for young readers. STICKS AND STONES is her seventh book for Follett.
Miss Hall was born in a suburb of Chicago and was raised in Des Moines, Iowa. She has always loved dogs and horses and has kept them around her whenever possible. As a child, she was limited to stray dogs, neighbors’ horses, and the animals found in library books. But as an adult, she has owned and shown several horses and has worked with dogs, both as a veterinarian’s assistant and a handler on the dog show circuit. Three of her books are about dogs and horses.
Miss Hall lives in a one-hundred-year-old farmhouse near the village of Garnavillo, Iowa. Besides writing, she works as coordinator and counselor for a local telephone counseling service offering help to troubled young people. Her leisure-time is spent reading, playing the piano, or exploring the nearby hills and woodlands on horseback or foot, with a dog or two at her heels.
I’ll Get There.
It Better Be Worth The Trip.
by JOHN DONOVAN
One of the most celebrated and discussed teenage novels of recent years, this is the perceptive and disarming story of a boy faltering on the brink of manhood. Tom between his loyalties to his divorced parents, whose own problems prevent them from understanding his loneliness, Davy shares his troubles with his only friend—his dachshund, Fred.
Then, at school, he meets Douglas, a boy from another broken home. Their mutual need for love and companionship propels them into a moment of open sexuality, and the painful aftermath drives Davy from childhood toward the new world of maturity.
A “Best Book of the Year”—Library Journal
Laurel-Leaf Library 75c
If you cannot obtain copies of this title from your local bookseller, just send the price (plus 15c per copy for handling and postage) to Dell Book Post Office Box 1000, Pinebrook, N. J. 07058.
“A ‘now’ book—thoroughly contemporary, sensitive . .
—The Horn Book
THE PIGMAN
by Paul Zindel
Two lonely high school students befriend a strange old man, Mr Pignati, who lives only through his dreams and his daily visits to his closest friend, a baboon at the zoo. For a short while the three find unexpected love and laughter with one another. But the unreal world they create is soon tragically shattered and the young people are left to confront the harsh reality of their lives.
“… A hauntin. story, startling and truthful and vivid.”
—Young Readers Review
“An Oustanding Book of the Year”
—The New York Times
THE PETER PAN BAG
by Lee Kingman
When 17-year-old Wendy leaves home for New York, she winds up on the hippie scene on Beacon Hill in Boston. There she finds a world of communal living, crash pads, pills and pot, and meets other young people who are in search of intangible meanings they can’t find at school or home.
“Looks with sensitivity and understanding at some of the young people’s most agonizing concerns.”
—The Horn Book
LAUREL-LEAF LIBRARY 75c
If you cannot obtain copies of these titles from your local bookseller, just send the price (plus 15c per copy for handling and postage) to Dell Books, Post Office Box 1000, Pinebrook NJ. 07058.
Two Dogtown novels by Frank Bonham
THE NITTY GRITTY
If you live in a poor, black slum, you’ve got to hustle to live, but you’ve got to have a smart hustle to get out. Charlie Matthews wants to get out of Dogtown but the question is, How? The English teacher says stay in school. His father says shine shoes. When scheming Uncle Baron comes to town with get-rich-quick ideas, Charlie sees a light. He starts raising money to get in on the big deal and becomes a little wiser in the process.
“Real and tough!”
—Chicago Tribune
VIVA CHICANO
“I tried to be straight as an arrow, didn’t I? But, man, it’s not possible.”
Keeny got started on a police record when he was a kid. Things never got much better. His father had taught him pride in la raza, but who could think about pride and being a Mexican when most of your life was filled with drugs, gangs, street fights, juvenile courts, and detention homes? When trouble started, people pointed to Keeny. So when he was accused of the murder of his little brother, Keeny ran. But he had to come back for one more fight against a world that didn’t understand him.
“Taut and exciting … blistering candor.”
—Saturday Review
LAUREL-LEAF BOOKS 75c each
If you cannot obtain copies of these titles from your local bookseller, just send the price (plus 15c per copy for handling and postage) to Dell Books, Post Office Box 1000. Pinebrook. N. J. 07058.
If you cannot obtain copies of this title fro
m your local bookseller, Just send the price (plus 15c per copy for handling and postage) to Dell Books. Post Office Box 1000. Pinebrook, N. J. 07058.
more good reading in
THE LAUREL-LEAF LIBRARY
1. THE BOY WHO COULD MAKE HIMSELF DISAPPEAR Kin Platt 75c
2. DON’T PLAY DEAD BEFORE YOU HAVE TO Maia Wojciechowska 75c
3. DURANGO STREET Frank Bonham 75c
4. I’LL GET THERE, IT BETTER BE WORTH THE TRIP John Donovan 75c
5. I’M REALLY DRAGGED BUT NOTHING GETS ME DOWN Nat Hentoff 60c
6. INCIDENT AT HAWK’S HILL Allen W. Eckert 75c
7. THE NITTY GRITTY Frank Bonham 75c
8. THE OUTSIDERS S. E. Hinton 60c
9. OUT THERE Adrien Stoutenburg 75c
10. THE PETER PAN BAG Lee Kingman 75c
11. PISTOL Adrienne Richard 75c
12. ROAD TO KATMANDU Patrick Marnham 75c
13. THE SKATING RINK Mildred Lee 60c
14. THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW S. E. Hinton 75c
15. TOO NEAR THE SUN Lynn Hall 75c
16. TUNED OUT Maia Wojciechowska 50c
17. VIVA CHICANO Frank Bonham 75c
18. VIBRATIONS George Wood 75c
If you cannot obtain copies of this title from your local bookseller, Just send the price (plus 15c per copy for handling and postage) to Dell Books. Post Office Box 1000. Pinebrook, N. J. 07058.