The Prodigal Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page B

English test that morning, a monologue she kept up all the way to
Menomonee Street, where Miss Tredgold began to take more interest in the
numbers an the doors than in Florentyna’s real and imagined achievements.
    At last they
came to a halt outside a newly painted red door which displayed the number 218.
Miss Tredgold rapped on the door twice with her gloved knuckle. Florentyna
stood by her side, silent for the first time since leaving school. A few
moments passed before the door opened to reveal a man dressed in a gray sweater
and blue jeans.
    “I’ve come in
response to your advertisement in the Sun,” Miss Tredgold said before the man
had a chance to speak.
    “Ah, yes,” he
replied. “Will you come in?”
    Miss Tredgold
entered the house followed by a puzzled Florentyna. They were conducted through
a narrow hall covered in photographs and multicolored rosettes before reaching
the back door, which led out onto a yard.
    Florentyna saw
them immediately. They were in a basket on the far side of the yard and she ran
toward them. Six yellow Labrador puppies snuggled up close to their mother. One
of them left the warmth of the clan and limped out of the basket toward Florentyna.
    “This one’s
lame,” said Florentyna, immediately picking up the puppy and studying the
animal’s leg.
    “Yes, I’m afraid
so,” admitted the breeder. “But there are still five others in perfect
condition for you to choose from.”
    “What wili
happen if nobody takes her?”
    “I suppose...”
The breeder hesitated.She will have to be Put to
sleep.”
    Florentyna
stared desperately at Miss Tredgold as she clung to the dog, who was busily licking her face.
    “I want this
one,” said Florentyna without hesitation, fearful of Miss Tredgold’s reaction.
    “How much will
that be?” asked Miss Tredgold as she opened her purse.
    “No charge,
ma’am. I’m happy to see that one go to a good home.”
    “Thank you,”
said Florentyna. “Thank you.”
    The puppy’s tail
never stopped wagging all the way to its new home while to Miss Tredgold’s
surprise Florentyna’s tongue never wagged once. In fact, she didn’t let go of
her new pet until she was safely back inside the family kitchen. Zaphia and
Miss Tredgold watched as the young Labrador limped across the kitchen floor
toward a bowl of warm milk.
    “She reminds me
of Papa,” said Florentyna.
    “Don’t be
impertinent, child,” said Miss Tredgold.
    Zaphia
stined a smile. “Well, Florentyna, what are you going to call her?”
    “Eleanor.”

4
    T HE FIRST TIME
Florentyna ran for President was in 1940 at the age of six. Miss Evans, her
teacher in second grade decided to hold a mock election. The boys from the
Latin School were invited to join the contest, and Edward Winchester, whom
Florentyna had never quite forgiven for pouring blue ink over her bear, was
chosen to run as the surrogate Mr. Wendell L. Willkie. Florentyna naturally ran
as FDR.
    It was agreed
that each candidate would give a five-minute talk to the remaining twenty-seven
members of the two classes. Miss Tredgold, without wishing to influence
Florentyna, listened to her deliver her oration thirty-one times-or was it
thirty-two? – as she remarked to Mr. Rosnovski the
Sunday morning before the great election.
    Florentyna read
the political columns of the Chicago Tribune out loud each day to Miss
Tredgold, searching for any scrap of information she could add to her speech.
Kate Smith seemed to be singing “God Bless America” everywhere and the Dow
Jones Index had passed 150 for the first time: whatever that was, it seemed to
favor the incumbent. Florentyna also read about the progress of the war in
Europe and the launching of a 36,600-ton U.S. battleship Washingion, the first
fighting vessel America had built in nineteen years.
    “Why are we
building a battleship if the President has promised that the American people
will never have to go to war?”
    “I presume it’s
in the best interest of our own