Walker High School - Pepper Pot Yearbook (Simsbury, CT)

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where a bearded man was chipping noisily on a sTrange TormaTion of sTone, while an admiring group oT sTudenTs sTood devouring his every move. A figure in a blue smock aT The Tar end oi The sTudio was aT work upon someThing I could noT see, and I recognized ThaT Tigure! l knew ThaT hair and The Thin neck and narrow shoulders. I couIdn'T move. WiTh Ieaden limbs glued To The floor, I was held in an icy vise, and could scarcely breaThe. Then slowly and warmly reTurned composure spread Through me and I could move easily across The room. She was working on a clay head and iT was of me! BuT no. iT was noT of me: iT was The head of The whole wide world. The expression of every seIT-cenTered person in Grand CenTral STaTion lay in The arroganT, disinTeresTed eyes. and in The nose and slighTIy biTTer mouTh. All humdrum humaniTy in iTs unaroused momenTs was porTrayed here. Now I knew why This girl looked aT people The way she did, and now I knew whaT she found deep beneaTh The masks and covering. IT she could see Through inTo The minds and hearTs of people in Their glorious and inspired momenTs as well as she could when They were narrow and self-cenTered, and record whaT she saw, she would creaTe The mosT beauTiTuI pieces of scuIpTure in The world. She would be a genius. As I sTepped Trom The shadow of The building and came again inTo The sunny, noisy sTreeT, I TeIT like an unTamed bird seT Tree Trom iTs haTed cage wiTh The whole warm sparkling world placed before iT To choose from and To enjoy. I sTarTed up Madison Avenue Twirling my cane and smiling gaily aT every passer-by. Boy AgainsT The Sky You sfand erecT like some young Tree, STrong and sfill AgainsT The sky. You have a mind wiTh which To see, AcTive will. A voice To cry. Why is iT ThaT you seem so Tree, Time To kill Before you die? Or have you sTolen NaTure's key, On This hill AgainsT The sky? MarTha Ely 95

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familiar brown-coafed figure, sfaring up aT The building on The windswepf corner. In The busfle of The day I had quife forgoTTen abouT This young lady wiTh The piercing brown eyes. buT now as I saw and recognized her Thin back and mop of Tan hair, I feIT an overwhelming rush of refurned curiosiTy. Turning from her survey of The build- ing. she sTood aT The curb for a minufe, while The wind slapped her wiTh icy fingers, and a few sfray snowflakes chased by. Through The swiffly forming misT on The window I saw a humble, begging expression in her eyes, as Though her whole soul were praying To God for help and proTecTion. The IighT changed, and my car wenT on wiTh The Traffic, buf I could nof remove from before my eyes The impression of The Thin neck supporfing The blowing mop of hair and Those humble, fearful eyes. Poor kid, she was probably hungry and cold and didn'T have any friends or any place To go! On a sudden impulse I direcfed The chauffeur To go back. wiTh noT The slighTesT idea as To whaf I infended To do. Buf The wind swepT around an empTy corner. The weeks driffed slowly by, and I found my ThoughTs forever Turning To The sfrange girl. I began To lose my sense of values, and my curiosify grew ouT of all proporfion. I Tried To Tell myself aT firsf Thaf iT was profound sympaThy for her which so Tormenfed me, buf in my hearT I knew iT was a disease of curiosiTy. I had To know why she looked aT people The way she did, and whaT she saw when she looked aT Them Thaf way. To whaT use did she puf her sfrange informaTion, and why did she look The way she had ThaT afTernoon on The sTreeT corner? Thaf prayer in her eyes had been a prayer for far more Than physical comforf and securify. BuT above all, I iusf had To know why she looked aT people like Thafl I am a New Yorker and a cos- mopoIi+an. I am nearer forfy Than I'd like fo admiT, and Thaf such a Thing should upsef my well planned bachelor scheme of life is beyond all reason. I Toyed wiTh The possibilify ThaT perhaps I was in love wiTh The girl, buf I knew This wasn'T True. I had no desire To see her again excepT in so far as by doing so if would enable me To comprehend her. I realized ThaT if someone else could saTisfacTorily explain her and fhaT chilling look, I would again have peace. BuT now iT was 'as if I had a disease, I had To find oufl Some monfhs Iafer as I was sfanding on The hoT and noisy corner of Fiffy-Sevenfh STreeT, The once windswepf corner where I had seen her for The second and Ias+ Time, I decided To enfer The building she had been sTudying so inTenTIy and perhaps find some Trace of her There. Climbing The sfone sTeps, The realizaTion came upon me ThaT here was The ArT STudenTs' League. Thaf famous and naTionaIIy recognized arf school. Was she an arT sTudenT? Did she sfudy here? In Thaf case iT oughf To be a reasonably simple maTTer To IocaTe her, buT whaT I would do or say if I finally did, I did noT know. All I wanfed was peace and release from This unresf of spirif and Tormenfing curiosify ThaT held me. In a daze I climbed some sTairs and wandered Through a large Iighf room crowded wiTh people and easels and almosf sickening wiTh fhe smell of painf. In The cenfer a model in a crazy purple haT and a long crimson feaTher posed meficulously on The edge of a green pool Table. The small noises of people aT work were broken only occasionally by The muTTered crificisms and conTempTuous humphs of The Teacher as he paused before various canvases of his sTruggling sTudenTs. I wandered on and found myself in a smaller less crowded room, 94

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PubliciTy STunT T was a hoT day in The busy mid-wesTern ciTy of Morrow. The sun's brillianf heaT was radiafed by The pavemenTs so ThaT iT was almosT impossible To walk in The sTreeT. ln his campaign office in The biggesf building in Town, Sam Jaffe saT chewing his pencil, waifing for his boss To finish wrifing him a speech Tor The Women's Club's address The nexT day aT LiberTyville. IT promised To be a dull affernoon, buT parT of his dufies if he wanTed To be elecfed counTy commissioner. Sam did noT care parficularly for ThaT kind of iob. buT his big boss was financing The enferprise, and he was geTTing a good cuT ouT of iT. The work, whaT There was of iT, was easy and pleasanT. David W. SmiTh was The crookedesf and richesf polifician in Morrow and wanTed To geT inTo The counTy commissioner office in order To be in on all The counfy posifions. He paid his men good wages and They served him well, knowing The penalfy ThaT was inflicfed if They didn'T. Sam swung his feeT off The desk as Dave came inTo The room. Sam, here's your speech for The ladies Tomorrow. lT's preTTy mushy and a liTTle far-feTched in parTs, buT iusT give Them ThaT handsome smile of yours and They'll voTe for you. l've been Thinking a loT abouT your case, and l Think you need more publiciTy Than you've been geTTing. l wanT you badly as commissioner righT now, To puT over a big deal. I'II Talk To you abouT This publiciTy angle again. O.K. boss. buT The papers say l've goT The elecTion cinched righf now, and if l can win These dames Tomorrow aT LiberTyville iT will be a sure Thing. So don'T you worry aT all. K WiTh a leer on his face The boss replied. l ain'T The one ThaT oughT To be worried. Ha! Ha! He Turned and lefT The room. Affer Dave wenT, Sam read The speech over. A children's playground on every sTreeT - lncreased old age Pensions - HonesTy is my policy -. He smiled aT The cleverness of old Dave SmiTh. Neifher The boss nor he had any such ideas. buT They sounded wonderful To prospecTive voTers. SomeTimes Sam had qualms abouT The roTTenness of his life. and how he cheaTed The innocenT people who Trusfed him, buT The ThoughT of The money angle quieTed any doubTs lefT in his mind. Sam had been mean and Thoughfless all his life, and had enjoyed causing his fosTer parenTs pain. A man and his wife had adopTed him from The orphanage, on whose door sTep he had been lefT as a baby. This loving couple had done Their besT for him, buT had died in an auTomobile accidenT on Sam's sixTeenTh birThday, wiThouT ever reforming or winning The affecfions of This cold boy. Sam had finished his high school educafion by obfaining a scholarship, for he did have brains. Here he had aTTracTed The aTTenTion of Dave Smifh, a TrusTee, who became inTeresTed in The boy. because of his vicious aTTiTude and moody disposifion which reminded Dave of his own youTh. Sam had been working for Dave ever since, aT odd iobs. This was his firsT imporTanT posiTion wiTh him, and Sam, in doing iT, planned To make enough To be independenf for The resT of his life. ln facT, he mighf even go inTo a few shady venfures for himself. He smiled in anTicipaTion of being his own boss. 96