20
SANFORD FRIEDMAN
shells
and sea wrack rush headlong back into the ocean. "Ohh I"
he gasped, suddenly seeing a piece of green glass among the rubble
and snatching
it
up before the next wave broke. "Look, Roggie.
Look!
An
emerald!"
"You act like it's the first green you ever found. You must
have two hundred greens by now."
"No 1 don't. 1 have thirty-six-thirty-seven now."
Suddenly, despite the noise of the surf, despite the fact that
Daddy was well over a hundred yards away and the wind blowing
in his direction, the boys recognized their father's voice, roaring in
the distance. Together they turned and saw him standing at the
bottom of the stairs that led to the Casino, shaking
his
fist at
Mr. Strauss who was hurriedly mounting the steps. Automatically,
Stephen began to gnaw at the cuticle of his thumb. "What is Daddy
mad about?"
"Don't ask me," Roggie said, sucking his lower lip and turning
away discreetly.
Taking the cue from his brother, Stephen turned away,
too,
and began to examine the emerald, but his ears remained fixed on
his
father's voice. None of the words, only the anger was intelligible
to Stephen. Listening intently, he looked up from the piece of glass
at the ocean. A comber was moving toward the shore, mounting
steadily: ten, twelve, twenty-five feet high--or so it seemed to
Stephen-a tidal wave like Daddy's voice, looming up, crashing
down, splashing his thighs with stinging brine, spattering
his
face with
foam, dragging, dragging at his ankles. But Stephen stood his ground.
"Look! A zeppelin!" Roggie excaimed. Stephen looked up and
smiled at the silver cucumber, floating through the sky. "Some day
I'm going to fly in one of those."
"Can 1 come, too?"
"I
don't know. We'll see."
"Oh, Roggie, please, please let me come, too."
"We'll see, 1 said. We'll see how good you are from now on."
"I'll
be
good. 1 promise."
"Here comes Daddy."
"Look, Daddy, look," Stephen shouted, pointing at the zeppelin,
but Daddy didn't look.
