Princeton Day School - Link Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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town made it impossible not to return to the United States, She muttered to herself, I will do it, Catharine leaned back in the seat and rested, the turbulence of her emotions still raged inside her like strange demons from the Arabian Nights imprisoned within some magic bottle, but she had decided rightly. A few minutes later, she was making her way to the church, when a voice called, I-Ii, honey. C'mon, the car's fixed. They did it pretty quick, for the English. I--I-Iey! what you doin' over there? C' mon! Wait a few minutes, jake, Catharine pleaded and vanished into the dim recesses of the parish church. She soon reappeared, smiling vaguely at him. I thought you weren't ever coming, honey, he said grumpily. I-Ie took hold of her hand and strode forward, saying, I want you to see this, darling, there's such a great smell. It's so British. Boy, I can't wait to tell the boys back home 'bout this. It' s a real English experience. They entered the alley and jake stopped, tossing his head like an angry bull to snuffle and snort at the powerful odor. Boy, this is just great , he repeated. Ain't it, honey? Entranced by his own perspicacity, jake did not wait for an answer but hurried on. Catharine, fighting the ever-present tide of fear, heard his voice as if at a great distance and followed him dimly like an old mare to the slaughter house. As lake started the car, he said, Boy, was that smell great, but I dunno 'bout the town. Seems pretty rotten--nothing to see. Boy, do I want to see some of these English castles. I bet they' re really great. Catharine replied softly, There is a castle at Ludlow, you know, lake, but he did not hear her above the sound of the engine. Sarah Brett- Smith XII First Prize Upper School Prose His Little Sister It was the following afternoon when he awoke. The room was hot, dark, and stank of smoke. I-Ie squinted in an attempt to check the time on his watch, rolled over and sort of stared at a pile of junk in the corner. His hand automatically fumbled on the table for cigarettes and lighter. I-Ie managed to light one, and raise himself to the side of the bed to finish it. I-Iis eyes throbbed, he rubbed them to relieve the pain. I-Ie gave a long sigh and stood up. His head ached and he felt a little sick. I-le put on his pants, T-shirt, loafers and reached in the drawer for a light-blue shirt. I-le tore off the plastic, opened it, put it on 'without buttoning it, dropped the cigarettes and lighter into the pocket and walked sluggishly, yet accurately, down the stairs. The sun shining in through the front door made him shiver and bothered his eyes, which didn't help any. In the kitchen the coffee was still hot, so he poured it into clean cup which was conveniently on the table. I-Ie sat down, reached for his smokes--another day had just begun, As he took a slurp of the coffee, his eyes were diverted to a shadow on the diningroom wall. I-Ie could tell who the outlined figure was by her sloppy sweater, and who else would approach him at that time of day? It was his little sister, Wendy. She peered around the corner of the kitchen door, grab- bing onto the frame, so as not to fall from her sud- den halt, and said in a whispering voice, What time did ya get in last night, or to put it more suc- cinctly this morning? She smiled coyly. I-Ie lowered the cup to the table and replied, I guess around four. At this, as if it were an invitation to sit down, Wendy stepped through the door and walked over to the cupboard next to the sink. Without her looking, her hand successfully reached onto the first shelf for a cup. She turned away with the cup in hand and set it on the table. She sat down across from her brother and slid the cup over beside the coffee pot. Her brother followed through with the sequence, filled the cup and handed it back to her. She had the sugar already. Thanks, she said. She stirred the coffee sloi.-:ly so as not to hit the spoon on the sides of the cup. So what did ya do all that time ? I-Ie looked at her thoughdully, then replied, I went over to big brother's house. We just sat around for a while, talked, had a few beers and then went to the bar where we played a couple games of pool. Who won? she asked as if it made that much of a difference. Did ya see anyone you llmew there? v

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The Return lt' s a queer matter: retirning to a place which one has loved very much 1-:hen a child. The build- ings, which once seemed so large, are now quite small, and various changes have overtaken the land- scape. But if one is fortunate, the feehng of die toinrn is the same. M Catherine :Talked softly along the narrow streets, she nu-as surprised by the constancy of her emoiions. She recalled hovr, at the age of sbt, she had first come to Ludlow. They had taken a train to Gloucester. Then the Whole family had piled into a shining car, hired from the local garage, and they had driven the rest of the rray. The car had H-round dorrn the steep road betr-:een tall rocky banks covered rrith green fern and rnoisture, next the bridge vrith its queer, orderly parapets for the fisher- man was crossed over, and the car was racing up the steep hill into torn. About hah way up Broad Street the car had slovred to enter a narrow: tunnel passing through a tall, purplish house of undeterinined age, which had not allowed modern traffic to coinpletely divorce one side of dxe Street from the other. The last thing she remembered of that swift, bewildering journey H-:as the clear sound of church bells as they rang the call to Evensong. Today she felt the same thrill of excitement and adventure, the same eager anticipation and rejoic- ing, which she had experienced long ago. The fa- miliar roofs and housefronts, the soft country voices and the smell emanating from the tom-n's best bakery still comforted her. The old antique shop hidden away behind me Butter-cross kept on displaying its firmly polished mahogany chairs and cabinets, the price tags discreetly hanging dorrn to one side. Even die silky cats sitting in its VfEdO3'-'S seemed the same. She should have gone in, but she had not and won- dered about the dour rrest country dealer who had sold her trio regency sideboards carved with snarling lions for trio- thirds of their true price. lfslhen they were delivered she had opened the top right hand draa-:er and had discovered a fruits-:ood apple, beau- tifully carved, which had never been there before. An apple is a lover's gift, Catherine remembered her Catullus and Usying to dismiss the slender, dignified phantom from her mind, she turned her thoughts res- olutely to the Buttercross. Set firrnly onto its round, sturdy pillars in the exact center of the old town, it did not vary, but stood like a self- assured break- 1-fater against the onrush of the tide. Catherine Walked on steadily under the early morning sun, fully alive to the implacable hoofs of Helic' s Well-trained mounts beating out the minutes in her brain. Yet she let the time slip by, her mind filled with ful-bodied images which passed across her her memory' in a sedate and lengthy liturgical pro- cession. She could not nop them herself, but as she 'turned a comer Catharine halted abruptly. A famil- iar scene arose before her eyes and she turned quick- ly to me left, up a narrow alley, reeking of stale mill-1 and die heady, penetrating flavor of roasting hops. There was an oasthouse nearby, she remem- bered. She broke into a run, Seeing from the over- porrering smell. She had always hated it and even nor: she vias afraid. That was silly but she was a goose, and geese are always silly. Someone had told her that long ago, but Catharine did not wish to re- member rrho . The soft coo-cu-roo of a grey pigeon hopping near her feet recalled her vanished senses and she realized she was in the old church- yard. She Went over to a dilapidated wooden bench and read the following inscription: This bench was place here by Hlilliam Boggs Esq in the year of our Lord, 1902, in memory of his be- loved rrife, Anna lxiaria Boggs. 'Vie brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry noth- ing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken array: blessed be the name of the Lord' . Perhaps lvilliam had loved his Wife, but she doubted it and sat down. The cool wind sang softly to itself in the ancient ash trees and Catharine rested, pushing the past into desolate caverns and crannies and cracks of her mind. The old church comforted her. The strong, supple Gothic tower reaching and stretching its delicate parapets to the heavens made some tiny bird inside herself begin to sing and her mind tried to imagine die lives of those who had built it. She seemed to see them working and toiling, as if through a glass darkly, expecting at any moment to see her mirror crack from side to side and their lives fully revealed for her closer in- spection. The singing stopped, me mirror faded into grey mist and her eyes roved on, noting the sturdy Korman trunk of the church and the convoluted Vic- torian limbs, which had been added on here and there for no apparent reason. The pervading peace of the parish garden flowed over and around her like a slow, determined river ggntly encroaching on a tiny island in midstream. atharine abandoned her- self to the firmly rising waters and as the tip of the land sank beneath the calm surface of the stream she felt herself to be at rest. All the incidents of her life passed before her eyes, like a long line of tropical fish swirnming in- exorably through a mbe- shaped aquarium. Unvrit- tmgly, she recalled the moment of bewilderrnent, doubt, hesitation, unreasoning cruelty, hatred and bitterness in which she had chosen wrongly. Catharine wanted so desperately to think she had been success- ful in America, but she knew this was not true. Un- der the bright glare of a foreign sunshine she had withered and coarsened. The anguish of her irst ar- rival and the continual torture of her daily existence was some hideous black tunnel from which she had escaped only for a ferr minutes. There, Catharine thought, she was some ancient munnny, tied and bound in the Winding cloths and ropes of an alien environment. For a second, she resolved to stay in Ludlowg it would be easy, really. She would simply tell jake that she was not coming back, and that would be that. The moment passed, and Catharine lcnev: she could not do it. It was not possible to break her 'word and then to enjoy Ludlow. The very values which aroused passionate devotion to the ancient

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Do you remember Mary Sidler? I used to know her when I was back in high school. Her father is a lawyer here in town. Filthy rich! Anyway she was never really that great looking, but not bad. Now-- God what a fox! What does she look like? Fairly tall, sort of long blonde hair, big blue eyes and just a sharp- looking girl. I got her address in California. She's leaving in a couple of days to go see this guy out there. Is she really that great or is she just another one? Yah I guess she's all right--like all the rest. One of these days you are going to get hung up on someone and she's not going to give you a second look. He looked at her strangely--kind of realistically tif there is such a lookj--smiled that sincere smile, and said, So I'll find another one. Anyway, we reminisced about all the good old times and when I think back on it, I was really a crazy kid. She hesitated to answer, smiled, then with a slow pause in her voice said, Yah I remember. I don't think Mom and Dad thought you would ever finish high school. I guess for awhile there neither did I. It got sort of tense after the second school. I remember when you would get in trouble, I'd always feel sorry for you. fShe thought back on a few of the times and thought maybe it was a little for herself too. J I would cry when they'd take it all out on you. I never saw Mom and Dad so happy as when you received your High School diploma. I know that they felt it all had been worth it. I guess I appreciate a lot of the stuff that they did for me, but back then it was all wrong. They were so damn good to me about that stolen car and so many other things. I hope you never do them the wrong that I did them or big brother did either. It's going to be rough for you, since you're the youngest and the only girl. Wade and I have either helped or made it worse for you. I mean we learned a lot, but they learned how to handle things a lot better. She looked at him believingly--and why shouldn't she have--then said, I know what ya mean since they sort of lost you two in one way or another. They have put all their hope in me. They don't ever push me or anything, but deep inside they would like to see one of us do something with our lives. It's bad enough one kid letting them down, but two--and now there's me. They realize their mistakes with you two and so they won't make the same ones again. I mean they love us all equally but in completely different ways. Parents will always try to do the things the right way--they don't give up. I guess it's their nature. Even though they have been hurt so many times. I' ll never deliberately hurt them. But I've got to be myself. I don't know, may- be that hurts them. Don't worry about it, he said in such a confi- dent way. They don't expect the world from you. They understand. 4 Yah, I know they're understanding. I really feel guilty when I do something wrong, really guilty. It bothers me. The subject wasn't doing either of them any good. Enough had been said. She fidgeted in her chair and looked down at her messy braids. She re- tied the bow of the left one, then examined her split ends. She did not particularly want to look up. She really was kind of afraid to. The silence really bothered her. She had to break it somehow. Um--let me have a cigarette. She heard the pack open. There was another long silence. It was not what she expected. She looked up sort of startled. Her brother had an astute look about him. She smiled slightly, then waited for him to say it. No little sister of mine is going to smoke. It's a dirty habit, especially for a girl. It's just no good. He sat back in his chair and picked up his coffee cup. How can you just sit there, light up, and then tell me don't smoke? After she said that she felt like a little eleven-year-old kid. That's different. Yah I guess so. She smiled meekly. That's my little sister. And there were no more questions asked. From the time she was little, she had believed in her two brothers. When their friends were over, her brothers referred to her as a pest. And often she would pay for her little-sisterness by being pushed around or made to mow the lawn, when it was their job. She did a lot of dirty work for them and errands were a speciality. She was taken advantage of nu- merous times. Although she never figured that out or ever really wanted to. She really did know it, but never gave them too much grief about it. He broke the silence with a cheerful voice. Listen do ya want to go flying? From what I've seen it's really a nice day. We'll go up for about an hour or so. I'll let you fly it like last time. How much does it cost again? Oh around twenty an hour, but Pm sure I can arrange it, so that it's not quite that much. But still, where are ya going to get that kind of money--you said yourself--you only have forty to get back to school on. And don't ask Mom and Dad for it cause you know they'll give it to you. You just gotta cut down a lot from all this big spending, like on flying, jumping and other whims and adventures. Don't worry about it. I'll pay for it some way. Yah--but then you're broke. OK, so ya don't want to go. l didn't say that. She knew exactly what he wanted her to say. So she waited for an appropriate length of time to pass. OK. I'll pay. Come on, let's go. He smiled that usual 'I knew you'd pull through! fShe knew it too. j She stood up and walked overto the sink, stacked the cups, and both left the room. When they reached the front door and looked outside, he asked her, Wen--get my smokes. They're on the table. Without hesitation, like a well-trained sister, she