6.
I memorized the part about the human voice infusing
words. It seemed so valid
and poetic. 7.
She said she was going to give me some books and that
I not only must read them, I must read them aloud.
She suggested that I try to make a sentence sound
in as many different ways as possible. 8.
"I' 11 accept no excuse if
you return a book to me that has been badly handled."
My
imagination boggled
at the punishment I would deserve if in fact
I did abuse
a book of Mrs. Flowers'. Death would be too kind and
brief. 9.
The odors in the house surprised me. Somehow I had
never connected Mrs. Flowers with food or eating or
any other common experience of common people. There
must have been an outhouse,
too, but
my mind never recorded it. 10.
The sweet
scent of vanilla
had met us as she opened the door. 11.
"I made tea
cookies this morning. You see, I had planned to
invite you for cookies and lemonade
so we could have this little chat. The lemonade is
in the icebox." 12.
It followed that Mrs. Flowers would have ice on an
ordinary day, when most families in our town bought
ice late on Saturdays only a few times during the
summer, to be used in the wooden ice-cream freezers.
