Circles Read Free Page A

every Saturday, and a couple of afternoons during the week as well. Maybe his father would need him to run errands with the van—make deliveries, pick up stuff. He’d do whatever his father asked him to do. He liked the idea of working in the store.
    Mark turned off the avenue and onto his father’s— his street. No problem parking—there were two spots up near the corner. He backed into the smaller one just for the practice. The van handled like a dream. He turned off the motor, pulled up the emergency brake, and patted the dashboard lovingly. He should have moved in with his father years ago.
    His father was sitting in front of the TV, watching Monday night football, when he came in.
    “Close game,” he said, smiling up at Mark. “They sacked Montana four times—but nothing can stop him.”
    “Oh, yeah?” Mark laughed uncomfortably. He hated football, but fortunately his father didn’t seem to know it. His father proceeded to give him some of the details of the game, and he tried to look interested.
    “I guess it’s too late to go out for the team?” his father said.
    “Uh—what?” Mark asked.
    “At school, I mean. I guess they’ve held all the tryouts already for the football team.”
    “Oh, right!” Mark agreed quickly. Then he added, “You know, Dad, I’m not really much into football.”
    “You’ve got the build,” his father said approvingly. “If I’d had a pair of shoulders like yours I could have been a first-string player in school instead of sitting on the bench most of the time.”
    Mark shifted around under his father’s scrutiny and tried to change the subject. “The library’s pretty good here,” he said. “They have a whole bunch of books on astronomy I’ve never seen before.”
    “Great! Great!” said his father, nodding at him and smiling. “Oh, I was also going to say I could take you to the game this Sunday. I’ve got an extra ticket.”
    “I thought you and Lauren were going. I thought you said all the tickets were sold out, and you only had two.”
    His father grinned foolishly. “It’s all over with Lauren. That’s why I’ve got the extra ticket.”
    “But Dad , . .” Mark began. He wanted to tell his father that he hoped it wasn’t because of him. He had a feeling that maybe Lauren used to stay over, before he moved in with his father, and he wanted to say that he was sixteen and a half, not a baby anymore, and that he understood all these matters. No sweat, he wanted to tell his father. He understood, and it was okay, and he wanted his father to know that he wasn’t a prude, and that he’d feel lousy if his father had broken up with Lauren because of him.
    Not that he liked Lauren especially. Not that he liked her at all, as a matter of fact. She was kind of a silly, over-made-up woman, who laughed a lot and looked at him in a bold, scary way.
    “No, no,” his father said. “It didn’t have anything to do with you. I know that’s what you’re thinking, and it just isn’t so. Besides, you’re old enough to understand. You’ve probably even got a girl of your own.”
    “No!” Mark felt his ears growing warm. “No. I mean ... not now.”
    His father nodded. “You’ll meet plenty of nice girls at school. A guy with your looks won’t ever have any trouble. But anyway, about Lauren, I’ve been getting tired of her. She spends money like it was water. The last straw was her birthday. I asked her what she wanted and she said a pair of shoes. So I told her to buy herself a pair, and I’d reimburse her. I figured fifty, sixty dollars—okay, maybe a hundred tops. So she went and bought herself a pair of fancy French shoes. She paid two hundred and fifty dollars for them. And they were on sale. That did it!”
    “Two hundred and fifty dollars?” Mark repeated in horror.
    “I’m not kidding,” his father said grimly. “That was the last straw.”
    “I could buy a new telescope mount with two hundred and fifty dollars,” Mark