THE GIFT
459
taxi turned in suddenly and hit the taxi's fender in front and it all
happened so quickly that Toby did not have time to get scared. The
taxi-driver got out and looked like he was going to get into a fight
with the other taxi-driver.
"Guys like you ought to be in jail," the taxi-driver yelled at
the other taxi-driver. "I'll beat the living daylight out of you, you
little draft dodger. I'm a veteran. I was taking potshots at the Ger–
mans when you were cleaning up." They stood like that yelling at
each other, getting closer all the time, their eyes bulging. "Just say
that again," said the taxi-driver to the other taxi-driver, "Just say
that again." Toby burst into tears and got out of the taxi. He was
afraid he would get lost although he had the address of the house
where Isabel lived. "Just look what you've done to this kid," said
Toby's taxi-driver to the other one. "Oh, I did that too, I did that
too," said the other driver and just then a few people and a cop
came along and when Toby saw the cop he thought that he would
never get to the party on time and he began to cry again.
"Which of you guys made this kid cry?" the cop asked the two
taxi-drivers. Both of them said nothing at all in answer. Toby felt
he couldn't stop crying anymore.
"Look Kid," said the cop, "you see this box I have? It's a
present for one of my own kids. I'll give it to you if you want it
and if you stop crying. You might not want to because it's for a
little girl but maybe you have a sister." Toby stopped crying and
started to gulp and hiccup.
"I would like to have the box, Officer," said Toby.
The cop gave Toby the box and told the two taxi-drivers to
take each other's license numbers and beat it. Toby got back into
the cab, holding the box and wondering about his prayer.
Soon the cab-driver stopped at the brownstone house where
Martha's birthday party was and Toby gave him the dollar he had
been told to give the taxi-driver. "Thank you, kid. That was a
pretty nice cop, wasn't it?" the driver said.
As
he got out of the
cab he was afraid that it might have been wrong to take the box
because then the cop's little girl would not get it and she might have
been praying for it. He would ask Vera because she would really
tell him whether it was wrong to take the present even though he
had prayed for it. He would tell Vera about how God had answered
