Back to Main Hub
Part Five "No, that's when you form an opinion about somebody before you know anything about them as an individual. I know plenty about you and I don't like you. That's not prejudice, it's... postjudice, I guess." "Then don't be... whatever you said." "Today I saw you twist somebody's arm till he gave you his lunch money." "Aw, we were just horsing around." "Didn't look that way to me." "It was a guy thing." She didn't answer. She walked faster in the hope of losing him, but he kept up. "Do you still go to Walnut Street Lutheran?" he asked, a little bit breathlessly. "Yes. Why don't you?" "My folks got divorced. It was my dad that was a Lutheran, and I live with my mom. She's Congregational but we don't go very often." "Sounds like a lucky thing for the Congregationists." "Probably," he agreed. "Can you slow down?" "I will if you'll turn and go the other way." "Don't be so mean! Anyway I live in this direction." Stacy thought she remembered that Nick lived just a block from his old church, which was right on the highway, but maybe he and his mother had moved after the divorce. "Fine," she said, and crossed the street. He crossed the street after her. She was walking so fast she might as well be running, and he was still keeping up with her. She didn't think he was on the boys' track team but he apparently kept himself pretty fit somehow. It was a warm day and she was getting tired. She stopped and took a long drink of Dr. Pepper. Nick went ahead of her a little way and then came back. "Did I wear you out?" he said. "No." "Didn't you buy two of those? I'm thirsty." "Too bad." "You're really in good shape. I apologize for what I said about your rear end." For the first time, she felt that it might be possible to like him in the future under some conditions. She wasn't going to give him her other Dr. Pepper, though. If he was still tagging along when she finished this one, then she would drink the other one right in front of him. "Why do you act like a bully all the time?" she said, starting forward again but at a more normal walk. "I don't do it ALL the time. Just when I'm with the other guys." Falling into step beside her, he gave her a sly smile. "I guess they're a bad influence. Especially Murph." "Which one is Murph?" "The big blond guy. Defensive lineman." "That's what my brother was too, defensive lineman. Only he never stole anyone's lunch money." "We don't steal. We just ask for it. There's a difference." "Not if you ask when you're twisting someone's arm, there isn't." "You're right." Nick looked down at his shoes. "I know it. It's hard to stop, though, when my friends expect me to go along with them." They were out of town now, walking down the county road between a freshly plowed field and the sale barn. Stacy stopped at the gate to the sale barn, tied her shoe, got the other Dr. Pepper out of her book bag and handed it to Nick. He accepted it with a wide smile.
|