Candy;

by Robb White

  He had stopped crying and was just sitting, his hands in his lap.

  ''Come on, Tony,'' she said, "we'd better go."

  He nodded listlessly and stood up.

  *T11 get his things together," Mrs. Malone said, dabbing at her eyes with a dish towel.

  "Where can we go?*' he asked.

  '*I know a place/' Candy said.

  Mrs. Malone came in with a suitcase full of the clothes she had gotten for him. ''Do you want these books, Tony?" she asked, holding out the heavy Braille books.

  He shook his head.

  But Candy nodded and held out her hand for them.

  It took a long time to say good-by to Mrs. Malone, but at last, after promising to let her know everything that happened to Tony, they were walking slowly down the long avenue of lawn between the trees.

  Candy put his gear into the Faraway and helped him climb aboard.

  ''Here we go again," Tony said. "We're always going, aren't we? Always running away."

  "Looks like it."

  Then he said bitterly, "But we never go anywhere. We just run and run."

  Candy raised the sails and went back to the tiller. In a little while they were moored and wading ashore.

  Up on Front Street there were some long, gray, flatbed trucks. Each one of them had a boat lashed in a cradle. TTie boats were gray also and on each one there was "U.S. Navy."

  Candy wondered about them as she and Tony chmbed up the sea wall and walked along past the trucks.

  At the head of the column Mr. Carruthers was talking to a lieutenant (junior grade) standing beside the truck cab. Candy nodded to him as she went by, and Mr. Carruthers said to the naval officer, "Excuse me a minute, professor," and came over to Candy.

  "What's up?" he asked.

  "Mr. Jenkins threw us out," Tony said.

  "I was afraid of that when I heard you missed the plane. What are you going to do now?"

  "I'm going with Candy. I don't know where."

  "Fve got a place for him/' Candy said.

  ''I can give you a job, Tony/' Mr. Carmthers said. "I've got a contract with the Navy to clean up all those boats. You could scrape bottoms and swab bilges. Of course the job won't last long."

  "I want to do it/' Tony said.

  ''Excellent. Come back when you can, lad."

  Candy nodded and they went on, Tony and Candy lugging the suitcase and Candy carrying the heavy books.

  Candy led him up the steps of the porch. There she put down the books and suitcase and opened the screen door. ''Come on in/' she said, holding his arm.

  "Where are we?"

  "My house/' she said. She felt his arm stiffen, then it went loose again, and he walked slowly into the hall.

  Candy's mother and father were eating lunch as Candy brought Tony into the dining room.

  She stopped just inside the door and stood beside him. "Mommy," she said, "this is Tony." Then, looking directly at her father, she went on, "I want him to stay here."

  Her mother got up and came over to Tony. Reaching dowTi for his hand, she shook it and said, "Candy's told us a lot about you, Tony, so I'm awfully happy to see you."

  "Thank you," Tony said, his voice low.

  "Hi, Tony," her father said, getting up and putting his napkin on the table. "Glad to see you again."

  But they hadn't said what Candy was waiting for. Her lips felt stiff as she said again, louder, "I want him to stay here."

  She saw her mother look at her father with that sort of secret look Candy had seen before. And he looked at her.

  "Fine!" he said. "Don't you think so, Cathy?"

  "Wonderful!" she said. "We can fix up the room downstairs so it'll be easier for you, Tony."

  Inside Candy was so proud of her parents that she was afraid she was going to burst out cring.

  Her mother stopped her though by saying, "I know you two haven't eaten. Til set a place for Tony."

  And her father said, putting his arm around Tony's shoulders, ''I want to warn you, Tony. If you go around with Candy in that boat of hers you won't eat mueh. I don't think she's been home for two meals in a row since school let out."

  Tony smiled, his face still a little stiff.

  As they sat down again, Candy began to talk. She told them about Mr. Jenkins and then about the job for Tony. She kept on talking and talking, because she didn't want to answer the question she knew was going to be asked sometime. She didn't want her parents to ask her "How long?" because she didn't know the answer.

  After lunch, at which Tony was very polite but didn't talk much, he stood up. 'Tve got to go to work," he said. ''Will you show me how to get out. Candy? I was a little nervous when I came in, so I don't remember."

  Candy walked back with him all the way to Mr. Carruthers and stayed there awhile, watching them unload the boats in Mr. Carruthers's yard. She left when he came over and said, ''Set to, mate. No time for vdmmin."

  Candy knew that she might as well settle things with her father, so she went to the warehouse. He was back in the little glassed-in office talking to a man, so she waited, smelling all the smells of food, tobacco, candy, spices, cheese, and all the rest.

  Her father came out in a little while and they sat down on some sacks of flour. "Have a cigar?" he asked her, holding out a huge fat black cigar.

  "Not right now," Candy said.

  "I wish salesmen would give me a pencil or a ticket to the ball game instead of always giving me cigars," he said, putting the cigar in his shirt pocket. "How're things, Candy?"

  "In a mess. Dad."

  "How so?"

  Slowly, then, she told him everything that had happened. She started all the way back at the day after the hurricane and she didn't leave out anything. Wlien she finished, she looked at him and waited.

  There was a piece of paper clipped to the flour sack he was sitting on and he was trying to read it, his head twisted around, as the writing was upside down to him. Finally he stopped and looked at her.

  ''Candy,'' he said, "Fm proud of you. Of course some of the things youVe done give me the blue willies when I think about them. Especially that sailing out to the islands last night. But Fm proud that you had courage enough to go and Fm proud that you wouldn't break your promise, although you should have, perhaps. You're all right. Candy."

  Candy asked quietly, ''What about Tony, Dad? Now, I mean."

  "That's a problem." He looked at her and smiled a little. "Candy, let's let that one ride for a little while, shall we? Here's the way I look at it. When we make a decision about what to do with Tony, whatever we decide is going to have a great deal to do with his whole life. Let's don't jump into that without thinking it over pretty carefully."

  "All right. But what about—Mr. Thornton and people like that. Dad?"

  He looked at her. "Nobody's going to bother Tony while he's in my house. Candy."

  Candy suddenly flung her arms around his neck. "I love you," she said.

  "Hush. Hush. There might be a customer around here somewhere." Then he hugged her back. "I love you, too, Candy. You're the kind of daughter Fve always wanted."

  Candy laughed, and that dried up some tears that had suddenly appeared. She stood up and brushed off the seat of her dungarees.

  "Where're you off to now? The North Pole?" he asked.

  She shook her head. ''I don't know. I think Til just go and he down on the sand and rest."

  Tlie days were peaceful and went by hke syrup running out of a can. Tony worked hard with Mr. Carruthers. He was outdoors all the time, climbing around on the navy boats, and he wore only shorts and tennis shoes, so he got browner than the mahogany of the boats. In the mornings Candy worked in the warehouse. She didn't mind helping to load or unload the trucks, but she hated it when she had to sit in the glassed-in office and try to figure up the sales and invoices and things. In the afternoons she just loafed.

  When there was a good movie she and Tony would go at night. She was surprised by his liking them and more surprised at how much better he
remembered them than she did. She would whisper to him every now and then when the people did things without talking, but he could follow the plot without much trouble. He didn't like funny men or cartoons, though. He complained that what the funny men said wasn't funny, so that what made the people laugh must be things they did which he couldn't see. And the cartoons were just noise to him.

  One night, coming home from the movies, Tony asked, "I wonder what's become of Dr. Daniels and that other man— Kruger?"

  ''I do, too. I guess he's all well by now though, don't you?"

  ''He must be. I hope he comes back sometime. I'd like to see him again. I keep remembering that time I spent on the island with him. He did me a lot of good." Tony stopped and laughed to himself. 'Tou know, he bawled me out. Candy. Boy, he really keel hauled me. He told me that the trouble with me was that I was stubborn. He said that blind people had to learn to be independent and that I was so stubborn I was hurting myself. Yeah, he did me a lot of good."

  'Tou're getting independent now. He ought to come back and see you caulking those boats."

  'Tm on the kst one/' Tony said, his voice different.

  "Oh/' Candy said.

  'Then what happens?" Tony asked.

  ''Something/' Candy said. "Something good. I don't know what, but something."

  "Let's don't talk about it/' Tony said.

  "All right. Let's talk about Sunday. We're all going up the coast and have a picnic. Chuck and Ryan and Dotty T. and some others. You want to go?"

  "In the Faraway?"

  "Yeah, and two or three boats. It'll be fun, Tony/'

  "I'd like to go."

  "All right."

  On Sunday Tony seemed to have more fun than anybody else. He caught crabs and fished. He swam v^th the others and only got lost occasionally and fell dovm some on the sand dunes. But he wasn't embarrassed any more, and everybody hked him.

  It was nearly sunset when they cleaned up the beach and started home again. The wind was only a breath, so the Faraway slowly drew ahead of the other boats. Candy and Tony lolled around in the cockpit as the sun sank and the long, soft twilight began.

  When they were nearly home, Tony said quietly, "They came and got the boats today. Candy."

  She stiffened a little, looking at him.

  "Mr. Carruthers says I can keep on working there."

  She felt better. "That's good, Tony."

  "No. Not really. There's nothing to do any more. Candy. He's just saying there's work, so he can pay me. I'm not going back."

  "Maybe he'll get some more navy boats."

  "He doesn't want any more. He's too particular for the Nav)% he says."

  Candy fished the mooring buoy out of the water and made fast. She and Tony furled the sails and left the boat shipshape. As they walked slowly home, Candy said, ''There must be another job for you around here somewhere, Tony. Sorting fruit, maybe. Or maybe you and I could go into the boatbuilding business ourselves."

  ''Maybe," Tony said as they went up on the porch.

  Her mother met her at the door. "Candy, somebody in Miami has been trying to call you all day."

  "Miami? I don't know anybody in Miami."

  "You must know somebody. Anyway, call operator eleven on Long Distance. Did you have a good time, Tony?"

  They went away, talking, as Candy picked up the phone and asked for Long Distance.

  It didn't take long, and when she said that she was Catherine Pritchard a voice told her to wait.

  Then another voice said, "Hello? Hello, Candy?"

  Candy couldn't tell who it was. "Hello. Who's this?" she asked.

  "Daniels. How's everything?"

  "Oh. Hi, Dr. Daniels. Everything's fine. How are you?"

  "Couldn't be better."

  "How's Mr. Kruger?"

  Dr. Daniels laughed. "Just the same. How did you and Tony make out with Mr. Jenkins?"

  "Not so good," Candy said. "Tony wouldn't go to his institute, so he made him go away."

  Dr. Daniels sounded upset as he asked, "Where's Tony now, Candy?"

  "Right here. Do you want to talk to him?"

  "No. No, I don't. But I'm glad he's there. Listen, Candy, I want you to get him to come down here. Could you do that?"

  "I guess so."

  ''All right. Here's the address. You'd better write it down."

  Candy hunted around in the telephone table and finally found a broken piece of erayon. She wrote the address down on the cover of the phone book.

  ''If you could get him here tomorrow, it would be fine. But any time will do."

  "I'll try/' Candy said. Then quietly she asked, "What are you going to do to him, Dr. Daniels? Are you going to make him go to an institution?"

  "No, I am not, Candy. I promise you that."

  "All right. I'll bring him."

  "Fine. So long. See you soon."

  "Good-by."

  Her father came in as she put down the phone. "Was that your Miami call?" he asked.

  She nodded. "It was Dr. Daniels. He wants to see Tony—in Miami."

  "What for?"

  Candy shrugged. "I don't know. But he said he wouldn't make him go to an institution."

  "Well," her father said, "how are you fixed for buttons and bows and dungaree pants?"

  "Will you take him?"

  "Fm going down tomorrow, so you two can go along."

  Candy ran in to tell Tony all about it.

  In the morning, on the way down to Miami, they discussed it and wondered what Dr. Daniels wanted, but they couldn't figure it out.

  Mr. Pritchard let them out at the address, which was an office building. "I'll be at the same old parking lot, Candy. So come down there when you finish."

  In the elevator Candy suddenly chuckled. "You know Mr. Church at the Beachton Inn alwavs calls elevators 'alligators.' "

  Tony laughed, too. "You remember the last time we rode

  in one of these things? We were going to see that eye doctor. Boy, he really clipped us, didn't he?"

  Candy told him then how her father had called up and hadn't had to pay the twenty-five dollars.

  WHien they went into the room Dr. Daniels had given her the number of, Candy felt strange. It was exactly the same sort of room the eye doctor had had. And there was a snooty-looking girl sitting at a desk polishing her fingernails.

  *'We want to see Dr. Daniels," Candy said.

  But this girl really smiled and said, ''You're Candy and Tony, aren't you? Please, wait just a minute."

  They had hardly settled down in two chairs when Dr. Daniels came through the other door.

  He looked fine. He was still sunburned, but he was all slicked up with a haircut and a shave and he had on a nice-looking suit and the loudest necktie Candy had ever seen.

  "Hi," he said.

  Candy looked at Tony's face when he heard the doctor's voice and turned his head.

  The way Tony looked up at him almost made her cry.

  CHAPTER

  25

  The girl at the desk went out for lunch. The hands of a little clock went creeping slowly around.

  Candy waited and waited. She looked at the closed door through which Tony and Dr. Daniels had gone. It stayed closed. No sound came from behind it.

  The clock ticked as though it were mad about something.

  She was getting hungrier and hungrier. And she wished she could find out what was happening.

  She jumped when she heard the knob of the door turn. But it was the wrong one, the outside door.

  Mr. Kruger came stomping in and didn't see her at first.

  "Hello, Mr. Kruger,'' she said.

  "Oh. Hello, Candy. You bring him?"

  She nodded toward the closed door.

  "Good. Well, we'll soon know," he said, sitting down beside her.

  "Know what?" Candy asked.

  He seemed surprised. "Know whether he should take the chance."

  "Who?"

  He turned half around and stared at her. "John. Who else?"


  Candy didn't understand at all, so she just nodded and said, "Oh."

  After a while, though, she got tired of not knowing. "WTiat's he doing to Tony?" she asked. ''Examining him, naturalh/'

  Mr. Kruger sounded irritated. 'To find out.''

  "Ohhhh/' Candy said. "Suppose he finds out, what will happen then?"

  "He'll operate."

  "Wlio?"

  "John."

  Candy was amazed. "Is he an eye doctor?" she asked.

  Mr. Kruger got up and stood in front of her. Leaning down until his face was close to hers, he said angrily, " 'Eye doctor!' 'Eye doctor!' Madam, that's John Daniels. John Daniels, the greatest ophthalmologist in the world!"

  Candy didn't know what that was, so she said, "All right."

  He walked all the way around the room, then came and sat down again. "If anybody in the world can give that boy back his sight, John Daniels can do it."

  Then Dr. Daniels came out and carefully closed the door behind him, leaving Tony in the other room. "Hi, Abe," he said, picking up the telephone on the desk. "Long Distance," he said, then put his hand over the mouthpiece as he waited.

  "What's the number of the-EE and T?" he asked Mr. Kruger.

  "I've forgotten, John."

  Then Dr. Daniels talked into the telephone. "I want to call New York, the Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital. To speak to Mrs. Breckinridge. If she isn't there, to speak to whoever is in charge of the Eye Bank."

  He put his hand over the mouthpiece again. 'Til be glad to see Mrs. Breckinridge again."

  "Wonderful gal," Mr. Kruger said.

  "Hello . . . hello. This is John Daniels. . . . Fine. M well and back to battery again, thanks. I'm in Miami. . . .

  Coming back soon. ... I want to do a corneal graft as soon as possible. . . . Yes, both eyes. . . .''

  Candy was listening but not understanding when Mr. Kruger reached over and patted her on the ami.

  ''Ah, fine!" he said in a growhng whisper. Then he looked at Dr. Daniels. ''There's a smart man/' he said.

  "Is he all right again?" Candy asked, whispering also, for Dr. Daniels was still talking on the phone.

  "Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," Mr. Kruger said, almost laughing. "While I was killing myself in a laborator}- with six doctors trying to find a cure for him, he sat out on that island and found his own cure all by himself."