Doctors Read Online Free PDF

grades. Neither, however, excelled in deportment. Indeed, at one point their harried teacher, Miss Einhorn, was driven to write a letter to their parents complaining of their unruliness in the playground and whispering—most often to each other—during class. Laura was once taken to task for throwing a spitball at Herbie Katz.
    Barney was the class “wheel.” He seemed to be a born leader. Laura was intensely jealous that she could never join the basketball games during recess despite Barney’s intercession on her behalf. The mores of the time dictated that girls play only with girls. And worse, she was not favored with the friendship of many girls, since she was skinny, gawky—and much too tall. Indeed, to Barney’s chagrin (and her own), she was the tallest person in the entire class. She had broken the five-foot barrier before he did, passed five-one, and there seemed to be no end in sight.
    Her moments of solace were rare, but a few were memorable. Like the episode in later years dubbed “High Noon at the Playground.”
    It was in fact about 4 P.M. on a chill November Saturday. Warren, Barney, and Laura had left the movies early—there had been too much Maureen O’Hara and not enough Errol Flynn. As they passed the schoolyard, a three-on-three half-court basketball game was in progress. After a quick exchange of glances, Barney stepped forward and delivered the customary challenge, “We’ll take winners.”
    But one player objected, “But there’s only two of youse.”
    Barney pointed to his teammates as he counted, “One-two-
three.
”
    “Come on, buster, we don’t play with
girls.
”
    “She’s not just a girl.”
    “You’re right—she’s flat as a boy! But no dice—she’s still wearing a skirt.”
    “You want a broken puss, buddy?” Laura asked menacingly.
    “Aw, yer mother sucks eggs, girlie.”
    In an instant, Barney had knocked the offender onto the ground and was twisting his arm painfully behind his back.
    “Ow, shit, stop!” he pleaded, “I give, I give—youse guys get winners!”
    They did not lose a single game. As the trio strode homeward, Barney slapped Laura fraternally on the back. “Good game, Castellano. We really showed ’em.”
    “Sure did,” Warren chimed in proudly.
    But Laura was silent. All she could think of was those wounding words, “She’s flat as a
boy.
”
    It happened almost like magic. During the weeks before Laura’s twelfth birthday, her Fairy Godmother must have made frequent nocturnal visits, sprinkling her bedroom with invisible gifts for her endocrine system. Her breasts were growing. They were absolutely, definitely growing. All was suddenly right with the world again.
    Luis noticed and smiled to himself. Inez noticed and had to suppress the urge to cry.
    Barney Livingston noticed and casually remarked, “Hey, Castellano, you’ve got tits!”
    But Barney was growing, too, and as proof there was the fuzz he liked to call his “beard” that sprouted on his face.
    Estelle realized it was time for Harold to inform his elder son about the Facts of Life.
    Harold was ambivalent—at once proud and afraid—recalling his own father’s introductory lecture three decades earlier. It had
literally
been about the birds and bees, nothing more elevated on the phylogenetic scale. But now
he
would do it properly.
    So when Barney arrived home from school a few days later, his father called him into his study.
    “Son, I want to talk to you about a serious matter,” he began.
    He had carefully planned a Ciceronian exordium using Noah’s Ark, leading up to a peroration on the male and female of the human species. But, experienced pedagogue though he was, hewas unable to sustain the discussion long enough to reach mammalian reproduction.
    Finally, in despair, he produced a slim volume,
How You Were Born
, and handed it to Barney, who showed it to Laura at fenceside later that evening.
    “God, is this dumb!” she exclaimed, leafing rapidly through the pages.