damage them in any way.” She sets the folder
on the table.
I sit down and eagerly open the folder. It
contains a small stack of photocopied pages, the
first being the front page of the
Middleton Times
from July 1880. There, among the ads for
Pianos
$10
and
Goodyear Rubber
and
Buy the Finest
Spectacles $2, $2.5, $3,
is a small paragraph:
Suicide in Middleton. July 3, Billy Jones, about
18 years of age, committed suicide last night about
midnight by jumping off the railroad bridge. His
body was found drowned in the river to-day near
where he went into the water.
I jump when the bell rings. The next
period is going to start in a few minutes. “Find
what you were looking for?” the librarian asks.
“Nothing about a curse,” I say.
“Of course not,” she says, taking the folder
from my hand. “People never gave it much
thought until last year’s accident.”
***
For the rest of the day, I can’t concentrate. The
algebra teacher calls on me twice before I hear
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