help?”
“Right, I could use some help,” Carole added.
“No thank you,” Lisa said coolly. “I need to get ready for class, and besides, I’ve got to make some notes for my next column. I’ve got a deadline, you know.”
The chill in her voice said everything her words didn’t. Stevie knew that for then, at least, there was nothing else to say. She told Lisa they’d see her in class, and she and Carole and Trudy left to work with Samson. Stevie was eager to get out of Lisa’s way. She didn’t want to be on Lisa’s mind when Lisa was working on her column!
As soon as they’d left, Lisa went to the locker area. She did want to make some notes, but she didn’t want to do it with her friends butting in. She’d had enough advice for one day. Working in front of anybody else would just invite more.
She sat on the end of the bench in the locker area and reached down into the bottom of her backpack. She had brought something very special—a miniature tape recorder so she could just talk into it when she thought of something she wanted to include in her next column. She clicked the RECORD button and began talking.
“Trudy,” she said. Then she clicked off the machine. She thought Trudy was interesting and she wanted to write about her. It was easy for people tomake judgments about others based on how they looked. But it was clear there was more to Trudy than that. Just by saying her name onto the tape, Lisa was reminding herself to think about what she wanted to write.
At that moment, the subject of her thoughts returned to the locker area.
“Do you know where I can find a lead rope?” Trudy asked. “If Carole ever catches Samson,” she explained with a grin, “she wants to try to lead him around. Personally, I think Samson is having too much fun playing tag to want to be led anywhere!”
“There’s a hook on the wall over there,” Lisa said, pointing into the tack room. “You can take any one of them. They’re all the same.”
“Thanks,” Trudy said, and turned to follow Lisa’s directions. She paused, then turned back to Lisa. “You working on another column?” she asked, obviously noticing the tape recorder.
“Yes, I am,” Lisa said cautiously. “I use this to make notes to myself—reminders, really, of things I want to write about. It’s the sort of thing we reporters do.”
“I think what you’re doing is very interesting,” Trudy said.
“You do?” Lisa said, surprised. This was the first time anybody had expressed any interest in what she was doing. “Everybody else is just angry with me. Jealous, you know.”
“No, I think it’s interesting,” Trudy said. “Nobody from my neighborhood could do that, you know.”
“Really? You mean nobody there has the writing talent? I’m sure if they tried—maybe even you …”
Trudy shook her head, making her dangly white and purple earrings click and clatter. “That’s not what I mean. I think it’s a city-country thing.”
That didn’t sound right to Lisa and she told Trudy so. “But the greatest newspapers in the world are in big cities! Investigative reporting began in a big city. For me, this is just practice, until I get my shot at a
real
newspaper. How can you say this wouldn’t happen in a city?”
“I guess I’m not saying this right,” Trudy said. “You see, I don’t think what you’re doing could happen in my neighborhood. In the city, everybody lives very close to everybody else. Here, your neighbors are across a driveway and a garage, maybe a hedge or a flower patch or even a big lawn. Where I’m from, your neighbors are across the hall, maybe on the other side of a wall. You sneeze, they say ‘Gesundheit.’ ”
Lisa grinned.
“We don’t all like each other, but we get along by minding our own business most of the time. It’s a way of adding space between people who are really crowded together. I get along with all my friends because if I see something somebody didn’t want me to see, or
“Right, I could use some help,” Carole added.
“No thank you,” Lisa said coolly. “I need to get ready for class, and besides, I’ve got to make some notes for my next column. I’ve got a deadline, you know.”
The chill in her voice said everything her words didn’t. Stevie knew that for then, at least, there was nothing else to say. She told Lisa they’d see her in class, and she and Carole and Trudy left to work with Samson. Stevie was eager to get out of Lisa’s way. She didn’t want to be on Lisa’s mind when Lisa was working on her column!
As soon as they’d left, Lisa went to the locker area. She did want to make some notes, but she didn’t want to do it with her friends butting in. She’d had enough advice for one day. Working in front of anybody else would just invite more.
She sat on the end of the bench in the locker area and reached down into the bottom of her backpack. She had brought something very special—a miniature tape recorder so she could just talk into it when she thought of something she wanted to include in her next column. She clicked the RECORD button and began talking.
“Trudy,” she said. Then she clicked off the machine. She thought Trudy was interesting and she wanted to write about her. It was easy for people tomake judgments about others based on how they looked. But it was clear there was more to Trudy than that. Just by saying her name onto the tape, Lisa was reminding herself to think about what she wanted to write.
At that moment, the subject of her thoughts returned to the locker area.
“Do you know where I can find a lead rope?” Trudy asked. “If Carole ever catches Samson,” she explained with a grin, “she wants to try to lead him around. Personally, I think Samson is having too much fun playing tag to want to be led anywhere!”
“There’s a hook on the wall over there,” Lisa said, pointing into the tack room. “You can take any one of them. They’re all the same.”
“Thanks,” Trudy said, and turned to follow Lisa’s directions. She paused, then turned back to Lisa. “You working on another column?” she asked, obviously noticing the tape recorder.
“Yes, I am,” Lisa said cautiously. “I use this to make notes to myself—reminders, really, of things I want to write about. It’s the sort of thing we reporters do.”
“I think what you’re doing is very interesting,” Trudy said.
“You do?” Lisa said, surprised. This was the first time anybody had expressed any interest in what she was doing. “Everybody else is just angry with me. Jealous, you know.”
“No, I think it’s interesting,” Trudy said. “Nobody from my neighborhood could do that, you know.”
“Really? You mean nobody there has the writing talent? I’m sure if they tried—maybe even you …”
Trudy shook her head, making her dangly white and purple earrings click and clatter. “That’s not what I mean. I think it’s a city-country thing.”
That didn’t sound right to Lisa and she told Trudy so. “But the greatest newspapers in the world are in big cities! Investigative reporting began in a big city. For me, this is just practice, until I get my shot at a
real
newspaper. How can you say this wouldn’t happen in a city?”
“I guess I’m not saying this right,” Trudy said. “You see, I don’t think what you’re doing could happen in my neighborhood. In the city, everybody lives very close to everybody else. Here, your neighbors are across a driveway and a garage, maybe a hedge or a flower patch or even a big lawn. Where I’m from, your neighbors are across the hall, maybe on the other side of a wall. You sneeze, they say ‘Gesundheit.’ ”
Lisa grinned.
“We don’t all like each other, but we get along by minding our own business most of the time. It’s a way of adding space between people who are really crowded together. I get along with all my friends because if I see something somebody didn’t want me to see, or
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