she could, and we went out into the conference room, and there sat Emma and Fred Hemesvedt.
And of course I thought of the Flintstones right away, even though they didn’t look at all like the Flintstones.
Fred was tall and thin except he had sort of a gut, and Emma was short and round, and they smiled a lot, at me and at each other and at Sister Gene Autry and Emma said:
“We decided we want to adopt you.”
“You do?”
Sister Gene Autry pinched my arm so hard I almost squealed but I shut my mouth and stayed silent.
“Yes. We want you to join our family and come to live with us.”
And that was how I came to live in Bolton, Kansas.
Three
WHEN I FIRST came to Bolton I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be there no matter how nice Emma and Fred turned out to be.
It was a small town—I found later it had just two thousand people—and it seemed to be there just because it was too far from the last town to the next town.
There wasn’t a reason to put a town whereBolton was—not one. The country around Bolton is totally flat, flatter than even the rest of Kansas, and Mick says Kansas is the flattest place on earth.
So they put this little town here and there are farms all around it, and when we drove toward it in the car—Fred leaning back in the seat and telling me how much fun it would be—I almost asked them to go back.
I’d seen mountains on television and hills on television and saw some hills in Kansas City, and this wasn’t right. There was nothing to stop your seeing. You just saw out and out until you couldn’t see any farther.
But I remembered the last thing Sister Gene Autry said to me:
“Keep your mouth shut.”
And so I did that and so I moved to Bolton with Emma and Fred and settled down to family life, except there wasn’t any.
Somehow in all the interviews and examinations and tests and talking the state authorities and the sisters had not learned all the things there were to know about Emma and Fred.
That they drank.
Oh, they’re nice enough and they have never, never done anything bad to me. Not even a loud word. They always let me do what I want, and even when I do something wrong they aren’t bad about it. Fred just looks at me, smiles, and says:
“Let’s do better next time.” And Emma nods and pats me on the hand and says, “She will, she will, won’t you, Rachael?”
But most of the time, all of the time, they drink. Fred owns the local grain elevator where the farmers come to sell their grain, and he keeps a bottle in his office, and Emma sits at home with a big gallon jug of red wine and watches the soaps, and they drink.
They don’t fight. Fred always goes to work, except on the weekends when he watches sports on television, and Emma always takes care of the house. I think they love me and are very good to me and are completely drunk by nine o’clock every morning so that the world is just one long alcohol haze for them, but it isn’t so bad.
Not as bad as the orphanage. Even with themdrinking and Emma and her soaps it isn’t so bad.
Inside of a month I knew I had figured how to work around the drinking and spent most of my time alone, eating meals with them now and then and going on drives sometimes on Sunday morning before Fred got too drunk to drive, but other than that I just did things on my own.
Oh, there was school. There still is school. But school in Bolton was like school at the orphanage, except that the teachers don’t hit you like the sisters do. I don’t make friends really easy so at first I just kind of stayed by myself.
Then I met Traci and she became my best friend until Python, and we did lots of things together except that Traci liked to ride her bike, and I couldn’t ride a bike very well because my left leg didn’t bend.
But then Traci moved. Her father worked with the highway department and got transferred and she moved. I didn’t get a new friend but it was still all right.
I met Python.
P YTHON
Four
IT WAS FUNNY how it
And of course I thought of the Flintstones right away, even though they didn’t look at all like the Flintstones.
Fred was tall and thin except he had sort of a gut, and Emma was short and round, and they smiled a lot, at me and at each other and at Sister Gene Autry and Emma said:
“We decided we want to adopt you.”
“You do?”
Sister Gene Autry pinched my arm so hard I almost squealed but I shut my mouth and stayed silent.
“Yes. We want you to join our family and come to live with us.”
And that was how I came to live in Bolton, Kansas.
Three
WHEN I FIRST came to Bolton I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be there no matter how nice Emma and Fred turned out to be.
It was a small town—I found later it had just two thousand people—and it seemed to be there just because it was too far from the last town to the next town.
There wasn’t a reason to put a town whereBolton was—not one. The country around Bolton is totally flat, flatter than even the rest of Kansas, and Mick says Kansas is the flattest place on earth.
So they put this little town here and there are farms all around it, and when we drove toward it in the car—Fred leaning back in the seat and telling me how much fun it would be—I almost asked them to go back.
I’d seen mountains on television and hills on television and saw some hills in Kansas City, and this wasn’t right. There was nothing to stop your seeing. You just saw out and out until you couldn’t see any farther.
But I remembered the last thing Sister Gene Autry said to me:
“Keep your mouth shut.”
And so I did that and so I moved to Bolton with Emma and Fred and settled down to family life, except there wasn’t any.
Somehow in all the interviews and examinations and tests and talking the state authorities and the sisters had not learned all the things there were to know about Emma and Fred.
That they drank.
Oh, they’re nice enough and they have never, never done anything bad to me. Not even a loud word. They always let me do what I want, and even when I do something wrong they aren’t bad about it. Fred just looks at me, smiles, and says:
“Let’s do better next time.” And Emma nods and pats me on the hand and says, “She will, she will, won’t you, Rachael?”
But most of the time, all of the time, they drink. Fred owns the local grain elevator where the farmers come to sell their grain, and he keeps a bottle in his office, and Emma sits at home with a big gallon jug of red wine and watches the soaps, and they drink.
They don’t fight. Fred always goes to work, except on the weekends when he watches sports on television, and Emma always takes care of the house. I think they love me and are very good to me and are completely drunk by nine o’clock every morning so that the world is just one long alcohol haze for them, but it isn’t so bad.
Not as bad as the orphanage. Even with themdrinking and Emma and her soaps it isn’t so bad.
Inside of a month I knew I had figured how to work around the drinking and spent most of my time alone, eating meals with them now and then and going on drives sometimes on Sunday morning before Fred got too drunk to drive, but other than that I just did things on my own.
Oh, there was school. There still is school. But school in Bolton was like school at the orphanage, except that the teachers don’t hit you like the sisters do. I don’t make friends really easy so at first I just kind of stayed by myself.
Then I met Traci and she became my best friend until Python, and we did lots of things together except that Traci liked to ride her bike, and I couldn’t ride a bike very well because my left leg didn’t bend.
But then Traci moved. Her father worked with the highway department and got transferred and she moved. I didn’t get a new friend but it was still all right.
I met Python.
P YTHON
Four
IT WAS FUNNY how it
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