@@@@@ "Aw, she was the kid sister of Larry 848
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"Aw, she was the kid sister of Larry Nesbitt, you remember he was that buddy of mine I was telling you about?"
"Yeah Red had a vague recollection
"Well, I always used to see her around his house, and she was just a kid, I never paid any attention to herBut then one time a couple of months before I came into the Army, I went over to his house and he wasn't in, and I noticed herYou know, she'd sort of grown upSo I asked her to go for a walk with me, and we sat in the park and talked, and"I could talk to her about a lot of things, and I don't know, we just sat there on a park bench, and I told her I wanted to be a sports writer, and she said she wanted to design dresses, and I started laughing until I realized she was serious, and we talked a long time about what we wanted to do with ourselves He swallowed his beer
"A lot of people were walking past us," Wyman said, "and we started playing a game, you know guessing how old they were and what they did for a living, and she would try to guess whether they were happy or notAnd then we started analyzing all our friends, and we talked a lot"And then you asked her, 'What do ya think of me?' "
Wyman looked at him with surprise"How'd you know?"
"Ah, I just guessed Red was remembering the park at the end of the main street in the company townFor a moment, he could see Agnes's face again, and the sound of his voice, "You know I don't believe in God He felt wistful, and then smiled to himselfThat evening had had a beauty which he had never felt in exactly the same way again"What was it, summer time?" he asked Wyman
"Yeah, early in the summerIt happens to all the fuggin kids, he thought, and they all think it's something specialWyman probably had been a shy kid, and he could see him talking in the park, telling a girl things he had never been able to say to anyone elseAnd of course the girl would have been like him"I know what you mean, kid," he said
"You know she told me she loved me," Wyman said defiantly, as if he expected Red to laugh"We were really going steady after that night
"Wha'd your mother say?"
"Aw, she didn't like the idea, but I wasn't worried about t
