Freda's Place

Cybil Wheeler was to be cast as Juliet.  Of course, she was.  That was an inevitable fact.    The boy had walked to that audition sure that this was his chance to gaze into his muse's eyes on a daily basis with no one becoming the wiser.   Lee volunteered to be the first one to stand on the stage and take his turn at reading the hero's famous monologue from the play's second act.    "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?" began Lee Graham with all the surety of  a Barrymore taking to the boards.  It seemed the boy was a shoe-in to play the love-struck hero of Shakespeare.  Everyone in the audience, those other brave children who had come to try out for the play, leaned forward in their seats entranced by the boy who stood before them, professing his adoration for the lovely Cybil Wheeler, who everyone knew, even before she had her turn to read for the teacher, would be Juliet.  ...

Chapter Five, Polly Sets Priorities by Lulabelle Gimlin On Lee's ninth birthday, a telegram came for his Mama.  Polly had never received a telegram before and was apprehensive from the very moment she heard one had arrived.  The man behind the counter at Alma's general store told her when she came in that morning to buy fixings for a sumptuous birthday supper, which was to include an apple cake.  "Missus Graham, that messenger boy from the Western Union Office in Wellsville was here a few minutes ago.  He brought something for you."  The shopkeeper, a burley man named Ben Carver, reached under the counter and handed a brown envelope to Lee's mama.  "I was gonna walk it up to your place, but, since you're here..."  Polly Graham read the telegram silently as all the shoppers and the shopkeeper looked on, waiting to see if she would be happy or sad when she finished.  It was impossible to read emotion on the woman's face.  That was n...