The other children spoke to me only when it was absolutely necessary, which is to say just often enough to keep from being lectured by their parents. I am sure the Mullers were aware of the tension between us, but the children were perfectly polite to me in their presence, so they could hardly complain of their behavior. Once or twice Curt, who was really too little to understand what the disagreement was about and too sweet to hold a grudge for long, made a friendly overture to me, but whenever he would smile or try to speak with me, one of his siblings would glare at him and his face would freeze in a solemn, slightly perplexed expression. I was not invited to play in any more baseball games, which certainly didn’t bother me. I much preferred taking long walks by the river. Sometimes I ran the whole way because I was so curious to see how much higher the fields had grown since the day before. When I got there I would strip off my shoes and socks to wade in the cool, welcoming water.
