It Was

It was like the time Gregory Peck tossed an aluminum ladder into the whirling blades of a helicopter.

There Was

There was a time when this kind of thing didn't matter.

The Party

During the first week she walked up and down the halls by herself and thought about this. She planned about being with some bunch almost as much as she thought of music. Those two things were in her head all the time. And finally she got the idea of the party.

She was strict with the invitations. No Grammar School kids and nobody under twelve years old. She just asked people between thirteen and fifteen. She knew everybody she invited good enough to speak to them in the halls - and when she didn't know their names she asked to find out. She called up those who had a telephone, and the rest she invited at school.

Held The

Harry's adult life held the lilting resonance of a teenage lolly gagging.