Michael Malone - Weebly

that I could never grasp, is repeatedly plunging
backwards off that high board into that hard water."
"No, no." The curate grinned, relieved by levity.
"It's a girl. Joy Strummer. I've gotten to know her
parents a little because her older brother, Bobby, their
son, has been reported missing in Vietnam for about
two years now, and, well, I've tried to help them keep
in touch with the government and, you know, see if we
could learn anything about where he is."
"Don't you assume he's dead?"
"Oh, no. We assume he's alive. That's Joy over
there in the pool.
I'm kind of surprised she's here; she's awfully
young. Over there."
Saar followed the line of the curate's arm to a girl
who stood, her hand raised in greeting, in the dark
shallow water; a girl who looked, the headmaster said
out loud, "Good God, like Aphrodite! Really!"
But strangely, her beauty made him sad. He felt he
wanted to wrap her in a warm covering, to cover such
beauty and keep it safe. Such paternal impulses were
new to him. And yet, of course, there was no shield