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FRANKIE'S DREAM

T. E. Davies, Jr.

Frankie limped along the street, struggling to keep his balance
while placing as little weight as possible on his twisted, stunted left
foot. People stared as he hobbled by: children snickered and imi-
tated him. His haste to avoid their attention only made the limp
more pronounced.

It had always been like this. Even when Frankie was a little boy,
the other children ridiculed him and chased him home with sticks
and stones. He would run to his mother in her shabby third floor
apartment, but she was seldom there. Her work kept her busy from
noon until evening; and when she was home, her time was spent in
sleep. When he did find her there, she comforted him and told him
of days when people would overlook his lameness.

He needed this much to keep him going; there was nothing else.
His high school days were a nightmare. The times when a boy needs
most acceptance and friendship were empty. Frankie lived from day
to day as he would on a desert island. The girls in his classes con-
sidered him grotesque and ugly; the boys laughed at his attempts to
play their games.

After high school Frankie had to get a job. College was out of
the question because there was no money available and he could
never qualify for any scholarship. ..

His first job was that of a dishwasher. That lasted several months,
and then he tripped over his crippled foot while carrying several
trays of dishes. He was fired.

It was an empty little world; there was nothing to hold his inter-
est. He could not read well enough to enjoy books, and music was
simply too expensive. Hours would be spent in idleness dreaming of
the days of which his mother once told him.

But even she was gone now. Frankie was all alone. No one to
comfort him; no one to .talk to him. He held a job of night watch-
man in a downtown warehouse. There no one could bother him. It
was only these long walks home that were bad. The children, every-
one laughing. It must end soon.

Tonight Frankie took a different way home. The kids waited for
him on the other street, but tonight they would miss him. And to-
night Frankie saw him. He was just a little fellow with a hollow-eyed

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