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A LOSS OF TIME

Florence Mehl

Sheila Warren looked at the stack of papers on her desk and
sighed. If her students only knew that she hated tests fully as muc!l
as they. She brushed a hand through her expertly-styled gTaying hair
in a gesture of weariness at the thought of the inevitable grading to
be done.

Marian Carter, the fourth grade teacher from across the. ha!l,
poked her head in the door. She was small-young and energetIc.
"Haven't you left yet, Sheila?" she asked, walking over to the windows
and straightening the venetian blinds to an orderly alignment.

Sheila smiled. "I am a little behind schedule. I had to wait a few
minutes for Sammy Ayers to clean his desk. I'm trying to teach him
to be neat, but I'm afraid it's a hopeless task." She straightened the
articles on her desk-top. "He's so unlike my Dougie." She crossed. to
the closet and took her coat from the hanger. It was an expensive
tweed which hung gracefully from her slender figure.

"New coat?" Marian questioned, eyeing Sheila enviously. She
fingered her Own wrap.

"Yes," Sheila answered, "I got it over the week-end. I went to
New York On a shopping trip. Dougie had never been there, so I
showed him the sights. Speaking of Dougie," she interjected, "J'd
better leave. He'll have 'been waiting all this time for me."

Marian turned to leave. "That's right. He goes to the Jones Mili-
tary Academy, doesn't he?"

Sheila nodded. "Best private school around within commuting
distance. Might as well use up all this money I've accumulated in six-
teen years of teaching."

"You'll have to admit it is fairly much," M'arian countered, "when
you also have a husband who takes care of all household expenses and
such." She walked away, saying over her shoulder, "You're a lucky
woman, Sheila Warren."

Sheila bent down to lock her door. "See you tomorrow," she call-
ed after Marian and hurried down the hall.

Outside, the November air struck her face with refreshing cool-
ness. She approached the new car-conspicuously new beside its com-
panions. Douglas had denounced it as too showy, but she and Dougie
liked it. In fact, Dougie had picked it out.

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