Alma College - Almafilian Yearbook (St Thomas, Ontario Canada)

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price. Probably in a few years the price of a show will pay the weekly installment on the family television set. One must also consider that Hollywood no longer has an abundance of male stars. There are no longer any Great Valentinos, and Clark Gable and Gregory Peck are not as young as they used to be . In any case, Hollywood is frantically searching for new box-office attractions while more and more people are comfortably settling in front of their T.V. sets, in soft arm-chairs, ready to enjoy I Love Lucy”. MIKE AND BOBO Daphne Sinclair-12. A small boy sat on the step, outside a run-down tenement building. He had been sobbing brokenheartedly for close to an hour and was the picture of misery and utter despair. The street was dull and deserted except for the occasional alleycat roaming about looking for its midday meal. The child was so lost to the world that he did not hear the man come down the steps and stop at the street, looking at him. He only realized his audience when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and heard a voice softly asking him what was troubling him. Without looking up, he replied to the stranger ' s question. Bobo went away and Mommy says that he ll never come back again. Mike looked up at the tall man beside him, and recognized Father Corrigan, the priest of the church on the next block. Upon being interrogated as to his name , he replied . Mike. Mike Brannon. then continued, Daddy went away too, and Mommy says he won ' t ever come home either. Daddy ' s diff- erent though because he went away to fight. Bobo didn ' t do that. He just disappeared. Father Corrigan had seemed to be in a hurry but now he wasn ' t anymore. He sat down beside the boy on the step and asked him more questions. With his wide brown eyes fixed on the compassionate face of the priest, Mike explained how his mother had rec- eived a letter two years before, with something bad in it. Ever since then, she hadn ' t been very happy or much like herself. Come to think of it, she hasn ' t even liked Bobo very much. That seemed peculiar to Mike as his mother had been very fond of the puppy when his father had brought Bobo home. Son, said Father Corrigan, Bobo may not be gone for ever. Pm sure you will find him again sometime . It may be sooner than you think, and yet it may be a very long time. No one can tell, but if you pray to God hard enough and earnestly, he will grant you almost anything. Say your prayers tonight, Mike, and mean every word you say. Pray for your Mommy and Daddy and Bobo, and most of all, pray that you will be a good boy and always do what you should do. God can tell if you mean it or not, and he will ans- wer your prayers as He sees fit. With that, and a rumple of Mike ' s shaggy brown hair, Father Corrigan got up, said good-bye and walked down the street towards his parish. That night after he had washed his face, and very reluctantly, in and behind his ears, Mike knelt down beside his bed. It was rather hard to remember the prayers that he used to say before his mother had received the letter from the army about his father. However, after he had concentrated for five minutes or so, he began to recall the words of the Lord ' s Prayer. They seemed to have meaning too. After repeating it several times he added a postscript. Dear God, I know that I ' m not very good, but I do want to be . Bobo, Mommy and Daddy and I aren ' t very happy because we aren ' t together and I was hoping you might help to bring us all back together again like Father Corrigan says you can. Please, God, we ' d all appreciate it an awful lot. Kate Brannon, although her son didn ' t realize it, had been standing at the door of his bedroom and her eyes were Just a bit misty. After tucking Mike in, she went and dialed a number on the telephone. Hello, Mabel? This is Kate Brannon speaking. Do you still have that little dog I gave you to sell? You have? That ' s wonderful . I ' ve decided that he wasn ' t such a nuisance after all and I ' d like to get him back. Could I pick him up early tomorrow morning? I want to surprise Mike. I can? Thanks ever so much, Mabel. ' Bye now. The next afternoon, Father Corrigan was disturbed in the midst of his preparation for his sermon for the following Sunday, by an excited knocking on the rectory door. Opening it, he exclaimed, Why Mrs. Brannon . What a pleasant surprise. It ' s been such a long time. Yes it has Father , but from now on it ' s going to be different. I received a letter from the coast this morning. Frank is alive and well 1 . The war office listed him as dead when he was captured. He ' s coming home next week 1 . I saw you in our building yesterday, and Mike said his prayers last night. I know you were talking to him, and his prayers were answered. I don ' t know how to thank you enough for setting Mike back on the right foot and for showing me what I should have done a long, long time ago. Watching her walk down the street, Father Corrigan thought to himself, It certainly is wonderful what a child ' s faith and prayers can do ' . Page 39

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