Donuts in the Darkroom

   Betsy is sitting in the back of the bus this morning. Nothing to do on the bus today.
   My favorite days are when she sits on the parallel seat in the front of the bus and I get the first seat at ninety degrees to her, next to the window.
   One of her girl friends will always sit next to me. While they talk about the school mixer or a party coming up, I can relax and watch Betsy.
   Anyway today she's in the back. I stare out the window at the trees and the houses and the cars and the people.
   I feel like a rabbit caught in the glare of head lights. My eyes are unfocused and my attention is barely conscious. I guess I'm continuing last night's sleep although I'm awake.
   Yesterday in class, Mrs. Corliss asked what were the possible compounds of iron and oxygen. I knew FeO, Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 but I couldn't explain how the last compound could be explained in valence terms. Last night I stayed up after two o'clock reading 'Chemical Phenomenon'. I finally found that it was made up of FeO×Fe2O3 where the

 

dot in the formula represents a constant physical mixture.
   Finally, the bus ride is over. My eyes notice the long gray wall of the building at North Avenue.
   I get off the bus and walk briskly, by myself, up the hill of Central Avenue. The fall air feels good and wholesome. I inhale deeply and succeed in waking my sleeping brain.
   Hersch runs up behind me. "H-2-S-O-4. A-G-N-O-3."
   Hersch is in my chemistry class. "Why don't you say hello like normal people, Hershey Bar?"
   "Chester, I thought you would understand me even if all the defective units at our fine high school didn't."
   "I understand you all right and I don't like you. Leave me alone." I turned a deaf ear to what he answered and walked faster to be alone with my thoughts.
   The four blocks from the bus stop to Tech High pass quickly. The large school building still impresses me. Four stories tall with a central extension that rises another two floors, Tech High stands in the center of a one block square lot. The area around the building, what we would have used in grade school as a playground, has been covered with concrete.