Polytechnic High School - Caerulea Yearbook (Long Beach, CA)

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I turned around and gazed curiously about me. Plows, sacks of somefthingforfother, axes, sad' dles, were all distributed about the place at the greatest random. Three kegs of nails and a barrel of. pocket knives stood side by side. I couldn't help laughing, in spite of my cracked lips, when I saw a bunch of candles floating in a keg of water. That was the only way they could be kept in that awful heat. Un the side where I was waiting there was a bat' tered counter, not counting some halffmillion other things. By the counter there were three stools, and upon one of them, Oh! ll FM'!!!5 !i I'I !!!!!!Il I' E 6 M A I Q Mm mm ! 4r'1 or I , .QNX L - ,,: 1 5' A! +N- e- A- I rillt it iri, ml: Jafpslkal BYRIQIIKRD BGERY ! -' sm I Q -I, .'. , ' - : ' 2 li x!1E,:.i...,..! I!! .,-gl- ' a . I MW ' lf' Lp FLW. fi ,gl !!,w Ill' 'bm A !lf11!2LZ5v9::H IIII I I i r i! I!! 'I' el 2m'!!!!!!M ! I !! '5. J Shinnik. I Slniifk ' There is at least one time in everybody's life when something that seems to be a miracle happens. The miracle of my life happened then, as I stood by the counter in that abominable old store, waiting for the slow specimen of a desert rat to bring me a quart of ice cream. Thinking that the heat had damaged my eyesight, I blinked twice before looking again. The temperature went way down past the zero mark. I stood there, staring, fearing to move lest I awake from this wonderful dream. She just sat there, all unconcerned, perched comfortably on the stool by the counter. Dream girl? Say! Dream girls weren't even in it! This one was miles ahead of any dream girl that has ever been dreamed of since the beginnings of mankind upon the earth! The storekeeper's drawling voice restored me to consciousness. I'Iere's your vaniller ice cream. I began breathing again. How much?'l I asked in a daze. When that pirate quoted his price, I realized why he took the trouble to keep ice cream, embalmed -or other' wise. Installment plan? I asked innocently. He failed to get the pointg so I paid him his money and stepped back to get another look at that human angel. She was gone. Gone! I was stunned. Gone! But surely she couldn't be far away. I ran out of the door, but she was not in sight. A short distance down

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Ff ffgf' a' 1'-- 'mm' ,4Q,,A,. I HEN t h e conductor gl' .whim n,. tif' ,f:u4mW'fIll came through the car Q-QQ y I I xN ..,4 A'-- i ' I, announcing that there I would be a stop of ten minutes, I ' I' ' ' I VY' I , - lost no time in getting out of that H All U ll! I I QNX Ai x Q-.X ' I' al I 1 m ll' I ,At I n 1 ills. wh' x y U I L Q I 'ls 'llllllll 'Willa .fi1l11llll , V l,.lll,q sweltering Pullman. I found that lk.I1,:,iillllll1ll11,g,,,,, ,,,,, the air outside was broiling hot, LT? WT I A and breathless-even worse than - f I W- N- - -' W3 W1 H i XyiX ii ' inside the train. Before me, the W Q J iL..4.-fig M2539 1 t N Lx-Lfgiilm,-NM!!vi, WI' i-jqxilsx fii if lv P I .LII-iviliiflgir I. J ' Nfl' l if I ai I . Q X MIIIIIINA :ilu X 'UV' ' WN dreary desert stretched away as , far as I could see, an endless A , y I waste of glaring sand and bristly rr Q -X cactus. By the side of the tracks f y fi-A '77'vl',QW N1 there was a Water tank for the . , -I Mu'1lllllll9'W5'Yf1m E'f-EIYI train, a handful of dryflooking D little shacks, and an old, barnlike structure, unpainted as was everything else. This last place had a crazy little porch in front, and a bleachedfout sign, 'The Irrigater' over the door. I imagined that it might be a store or something, so I ambled stumblinglyl over the hot, loose sand beside the tracks, fervently hoping to find a coo spot inside The Irrigaterw. A half dozen other passengers were staggeringl in the same direction. As we approached the place, a tall, gaunt man came out, carrying a large bucket of water. Sloosh it went, as he flung it upon the parched ground. I think that was the sweetest, most enticing sound that I've ever been fortunate enough to hear. The water just sank where it fell, or disf solved into the air, in half a dozen seconds not a trace of it was left. Pouring out a bucket of water there was just like sneezing into a blast furnace. Got anything cold? I asked of the bucket carrier when I went inside. Vaniller ice cream, he drawled. Anything else? Nawp . Then give me about a quart, and a spoon, too, I added as an after' thought as the fellow disappeared into a back room. How on earth he ever kept ice cream in that particular bit of Hades I have never quite de' termined. I suppose he bought his supply from the weekly train and kept it in embalming fluid during the rest of the week. DEPKRT5

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26 CAERULEA ,26 JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllIIIIIIllIII!!IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllIIllIIIIIIIIIIllIIIIIIII!IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllIIIIllllIIIIIIIIIKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII5 the track were a few little houses . She must be in one of them, I thought A systematic search would certainly produce her. Just then a hoarse shriek from the train startled me. Great guns and little firecrackers! Did I have to leave that wonderful girl wandering around loose here in the desert just because a mere train was leaving? Ridiculous! I'd find her if twenty trains were pulling out. Settled on that point, I started walking down by the side of the tracks toward the little houses. The train was beginning to move. The engineer gazed curiously down at me as the engine passed. The cars went by faster and faster as I hurried along in the same direction . . . I counted them in derision. Let's see the train big enough to haul me out of here before I get another look at her! I thought. Clickety click! Clickety click! The cars were speeding past. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, I counted. Now the last car was passing. I looked aimlessly in at the people on the obserf vation platform. A man, a woman, and a girl were there. The man and the woman were just ordinary people, but the girl! I stopped in my tracks and gazed horrorfsticken at the speedily receding train. Sacred chrysanthemumslw I muttered frantically, and galloped down the tracks like a greyhound. But all to no avail. The weekly train was gone, upon it all my baggage, and also upon it, was that wonderful, marvelous girl! FATE AND CHANCE By Sybil Doubleday The winds of fate Are blowing tonightg The wings of chance Are hovering low. Should fate be kind And chance be true, I'11 be coming home My love, for you.