CHAPTER TWENTY
Steven had moved from a town quite a distance away. At first he 
felt very uncomfortable at a new school and in a new neighborhood. But 
now he started to feel happier and more comfortable with the people in 
his neighborhood. 
And things went better for him in the classroom. He made friends 
and felt less awkward with the other children. But the best thing which 
happened to make Steven feel he was part of the group was the puppet 
project the children became engrossed in.
They found out they loved puppets, so Mrs. Lawrence allowed them 
to make some. Within about ten weeks, they had fifteen puppets. David's 
father offered to build a wooden framework, which they could decorate 
and make into a puppet theater.
When they had both puppets and a theater, they found it was im-
portant to think up skits for the puppets to act out. Even when they 
found stories in books, they had to make up words for the puppets to 
speak. Finding something clever for the puppets to say, or some drama-
tic action for them, was often extremely difficult.
One day Steven held up his hand very shyly.


"What is it, Steven?" Mrs. Lawrence asked.
"I would like to try the puppets."
"Haven't you had a chance to do something with the puppets yet? 
Well, come up and try. Let's see what kind of a story you make up."
When the children said they wanted to "try" the puppets, it meant 
they wanted to have a turn at trying to manipulate them and make them 
speak. The children had discovered that giving a puppet a voice was 
sometimes the hardest part of all.
Steven put a puppet on each hand. He went behind the puppet thea-
ter and had both puppets come up from underneath, so they were on stage 
and ready to act out a scene.
The two puppets on Steven's hands faced each other. There was 
complete silence in the room, as everyone watched carefully to see what 
he would do with these two characters. The ones Steven had selected 
were favorites with many of the boys and girls. They had been on that 
little stage pretty often. So what would be new this time? What would 
Steven make them do?
The two puppets faced each other for a long moment, not making a 
sound. Nothing happened. Then one of them let out a large squawk. The 
other one fell and rolled over on his back. He made funny, little 
jouncing movements and rumbling sounds, as if he were laughing at 
something very, very hard.


After a moment or so, the puppet got up from that position and 
spoke to his partner. The two characters on the small stage laughed 
with each other, talked, argued, squawked, hit each other, and gener-
ally mixed things up. The story which unfolded was simple. It was com-
pleted in a little over four minutes. But cheers went up when it was 
done!
The children had really enjoyed themselves, watching Steven's 
puppet show. They laughed when the puppets squabbled. They cheered and 
gave directions to the puppets. They would say, "Go here." "Go there." 
"Don't hit him!" "Don't hurt him!" "Get out of his way, silly."
So from then on, Steven handled the puppets. He would direct the 
other children in what to do. Sometimes four children at once would 
have puppets on their hands. Steven would say, "David put yours in, 
Emily put yours in, and I'll put mine in." There could be five or six 
puppets on stage at once, and Steven would know exactly what he wanted 
each one to say.
"Get about three general story lines together," Mrs. Lawrence 
said.
"I don't know the stories," Steven said. "I just make up in my 
head what I want the characters to say or do."
"Yes, I know that's what you do. And you do it very well," said 
Mrs. Lawrence. "You make up lines for your own puppets, and the other 
children's too. But listen carefully to what I said. I don't want you 
to have a complete story that's fully finished in every detail. Just 
develop three story lines, so I know what you're going to do."
"Like what?"
"Well, you did something which worked itself into a story about a 
girl who had an ugly face and no one would talk to her. That wasn't a 
complete story. I would call it a 'story line.' As I say these few 
words, you could remember what you did before and do it again, more or 
less the same way."
"Yes," Steven said.
"Name three story lines for me like that. Not full stories. But 
little captions, you might say, so we all know what's coming up. Be-
cause I definitely want this class to be able to put on puppet shows. 
Steven has done a such fine job directing us and being a puppeteer; we 
can't let these abilities we've developed go to waste."


	CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Then Steven was out of school sick for a time that seemed to last 
forever. It was the fifth day he had been out, when Mrs. Lawrence 
announced, "This class has been asked to put on a puppet show at the 
next school assembly."
"Without Steven," Michael gasped. "We can't do it without him!"
Each child in the room agreed. There were echoes throughout the 
classroom. Some children were saying, "No, we can't put it on without 
Steven. No, no." Other children asked, "How can we? It's stupid. How 
can we put on a puppet show without Steven to help us?"
"I spoke to Steven's mother on the phone yesterday, and she said 
he is quite, quite sick," Mrs. Lawrence said. "He may be out two weeks 
or more."
"Then we can't put on a puppet show at the assembly next Tues-
day," Peter said. "We just can't. Steven's not here!"
"Oh, I think we can," said Mrs. Lawrence. "Let's try."

That day the weather outside was windy and blustery. It had been 
raining. So Mrs. Lawrence said to Billy, "You can't go out for recess 
today. The wind is much too strong. It would knock you over in an 
instant. Besides it's slippery underfoot because the ground is wet from 
the rain. A crutch would go out from under you very easily. Who volun-
teers to stay in for recess, so Billy won't be alone?"
"I will, I will," said Emily, raising her hand and shaking it 
with short, nervous jerks to emphasize the fact she had raised it.
"I will too," Peter said.
He snuck a sidelong glance at Billy, as if to say, "This will be 
great! We'll find something fun to do."
"Good," Mrs. Lawrence said, smiling. "Two of you will be staying 
in the classroom with Billy for recess. He won't be alone."
Billy felt okay about this. Of course, he would rather have gone 
outside. But since he couldn't, staying inside and playing with friends 
would be fine.
When the class had gone outside, Peter and Billy played a numbers 
game which Peter had found in a book. Emily wandered over to where the 
puppets were. She put two puppets on her hands.
Peter noticed what she was doing and asked, "Why did you choose 
those?"
"Oh, I'm just fooling around. Steven is not here to help us. So 
we might as well try this or that."
She put the puppets in the theater and had them dance, sing, and 
shake hands with each other. Billy and Peter became interested. They 
put their game aside and watched.
Once Emily realized they were watching, she had the puppets bow 
to them.
"That was good!" Billy said.
Sara shrugged and said, "I'm just fooling around. This is fun, 
though."
"Billy, why don't you try the puppets?" Peter asked.
"If I did them, they would move as if they had cerebral palsy."
Peter and Emily both laughed.
When his two friends laughed, Billy decided to add, "They would 
talk like they had cerebral palsy too."
Peter and Emily laughed again.
"We have a cerebral palsy bird. We don't need cerebral palsy pup-
pets too," Peter said.
"Nope," Billy said. And he laughed too.
"Think your poster will win?" Peter asked.
"No! It was a stupid idea for a poster in the first place!"
"Mr. Laramie liked it."
"Mr. Laramie had to choose three. But he chose only two by mis-
take," said Billy. "But when he realized he needed to choose another 
one, he went through all of them real quickly. He happened to see mine 
and chose it."
"You think that's why your poster got picked?"
"Yes."
"Well, Mrs. Camden chooses next," Peter told him. "She likes 
birds."
"I'll bet she won't like mine!" Billy's eyes sparkled and there 
was mischief and delight in his voice.
During this time Emily still had the two puppets on the little 
stage. They were singing, dancing, bouncing up and down, shaking hands, 
and talking to each other. She had made up a little tune, which she 
hummed from time to time and had the puppets dance to it.
When there were noises in the corridor, the three of them knew 
their classmates were coming back. Emily quickly took the puppets out 
of their stage. She pulled them off her hands and laid them away. She 
ran to her seat and sat down. Moments later Mrs. Lawrence came into the 
room with the other boys and girls in the class. There was, though, no 
evidence that Emily had been handling the puppets.
Later that afternoon, Mrs. Lawrence asked the class, "Who wants 
to direct the puppet show we're going to put on? I need a chief puppet-
eer. Someone who can make up a story, tell the other children what to 
do, and so on."
"Let Emily try," said Peter. "She's good at making the puppets 
work."
"No, I'm not," Emily said, turning around to glare at Peter.
"Yes, she is. She put on a show for Billy and me during recess. 
It was good, wasn't it Billy?"
"Yes," Billy said.
"I can't, I can't," Emily said. "I can't put on a whole show the 
way Steven has."
"We need something for the assembly on Tuesday," Mrs. Lawrence 
said.
"Oh, you can," Peter told Emily. "Have confidence in yourself.
Think, 'Well, yes, I'll do it.' And you will."
"I can't!" Emily screamed. She jumped to her feet and turned to 
face Peter. Her hands became bunched up into fists. "Be quiet," she 
said. "You jerk!"
Mrs. Lawrence had some books in her hands. She let them drop on 
her desk with a loud bang! The bang when the books fell brought every 
child in the room to attention. Emily twirled around and slipped back 
down into her seat immediately.
"I've heard that word 'jerk' used in this room before," 
Mrs. Lawrence said. "And I don't like it!"
The children looked at her, and she looked at them. They were 
solemn.
"You call each other that, and it doesn't seem fair. I don't know 
a single child in this room who is a jerk. In any case, I don't want to 
hear that word used in my classroom again!"








	CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Unlike Steven, who was a bold and boisterous child once he came 
out of his shell, Emily was a little less forward. When the children 
were playing a game, Steven would yell loudly that his turn was coming 
up. Or when they were choosing sides for a game, he would scream loudly 
to let people know he was there and wanted to be chosen.
But Emily held back a little when other children were demanding 
to be heard or chosen. It wasn't that she was shy. She simply was not 
as forceful in her ways as some of the other children in the class. 
Now she had to organize a puppet show. She had to tell the other 
children where to stand and when and where to bring their puppets onto 
the stage. She had to know exactly when each puppet should sing, dance, 
or just make noise.
When she was asked to be chief puppeteer, Emily kept shaking her 
head and saying, "No, no, no." But Mrs. Lawrence insisted.
"We need someone to help us with a puppet show," she said. 
"Steven was our chief puppeteer, but now he's out sick. I want you to 
try this, Emily. I really do!"
So Emily had to pluck up her courage and try. At first she just 
stood behind the puppet theater and made the puppets work. She devel-
oped a story line which was so thin and thready, it barely existed. But 
still, there were some parts of a story in what she had the puppets do 
on stage.
The scenes Emily did were happy. Full of song, dance, and laugh-
ter. Steven had taken a different approach. In his scenes the puppets 
had complex situations to deal with and conflicts to straighten out. 
Seeing his shows was really a little more interesting.
But Emily did all right. She gradually learned that it was rather 
easy to have another child come up and help her. Soon two or three 
children stood behind the puppet theater, doing what Emily directed 
them to do.

The following Tuesday Mrs. Lawrence's fifth grade class did put 
on a puppet show at the school assembly. There were cheers and applause 
from the audience, although probably not as much as there would have 
been if Steven had put on the show.
Yet Emily enjoyed very much coming to the middle of the stage and 
taking a large bow after the performance! This was the bow she was 
asked to take as chief puppeteer.  Her ideas had made the puppet show 
happen!

Something else great happened at that assembly. Billy's poster 
was chosen to be sent on to the Cultural Exposition which would take 
place in just a few weeks. He smiled broadly when everyone congratu-
lated him at the end of the assembly. His poster had been judged best 
of all the fifth grade posters done in the school. Peter had been 
right. It was Mrs. Camden, one of the art teachers for the school 
system, who had done the judging.

But at home that night, Billy told his parents, "My poster was 
the first one Mrs. Camden came to when she went up on the stage. She 
probably went through all the posters, then came back to mine because 
it was at the beginning. She picked it because she did not want to go 
to the bother of going through all the posters again."
"You're pretty hard on yourself about that poster, aren't you, 
son," his father said. "You know, it may go on and win at the next 
level of competition."
"Nobody liked my poster. You all thought the bird on it was ugly. 
What's the difference now?"
"You're winning with it now. No one argues with a winner!" said 
Mr. Wentworth.

About ten days later Steven came back to school. He walked into 
the classroom after class had started.
"Hello, Steven! How are you?" Mrs. Lawrence greeted him. "Nice to 
have you back."
"The doctor said I can be back in school now."
"Well, I'm glad. Sit down in your seat. We've just begun an 
arithmetic lesson. You can join us as we do it."
Michael spoke up and said, "Emily is doing puppet shows now."
Steven stopped walking. He turned and went toward Emily's desk, 
instead of walking toward his own.
"You're putting on puppet shows?" he asked Emily.
"Yes," she said, meekly.
"Are they good?"
Emily didn't answer.
Steven turned and looked at Mrs. Lawrence, questioningly.
"Yes," Mrs. Lawrence said. "Emily has been our chief puppeteer 
during these last few weeks while you were out."
"Is she as good at working the puppets as I was?"
"Well, how can anyone answer that question, Steven. You and Emily 
have different techniques. There's no way of judging between you."
Steven looked again at Emily and said, "You took my job! That's 
no fair! Maybe I won't even get it back! You're a jerk!"
With a pencil she had in her hand, Mrs. Lawrence tapped loudly on 
her desk. She tapped one tap for each of the following words, "We are 
not using the word 'jerk' in this room. Not for any reason whatever!"
Steven turned and looked at Mrs. Lawrence.
She continued, "Steven, you haven't been in this classroom late-
ly, so you don't know. We don't use that word!"
Steven nodded.
"Now get to your desk, and we'll do the arithmetic lesson.
Steven walked over to his desk and sat down. He pulled out some 
paper and began copying the arithmetic examples written on the 
blackboard.
There was more trouble at recess.
Steven went up to Michael and asked, "Are Emily's puppet shows 
any better than mine?"
"Yes, I think they are," Michael answered.
He asked Peter, "Are Emily's puppet shows better than mine?"
"No, yours are a lot, lot better," Peter told him.
Then Steven went up to Billy. "Are Emily's puppet shows any 
better than mine?" he asked him.
Billy hesitated. He didn't know what to say.
"Aw, he can't talk anyway," said Steven, making a mean, waving 
gesture. As if to wave away the idea that Billy could communicate at 
all. Or had anything important to say when he did try to speak.
This hurt Billy! It hurt him a whole, whole lot. His first in-
stinct was to say something mean and nasty back. Something to really 
get under Steven's skin.
He said, "I talk. You just don't listen well, you jerk!"
Billy had said the word Mrs. Lawrence had forbidden! 
Michael, Robert, Peter, and Daniel were standing in about the 
same area of the playground that Billy was. They had heard what he 
said. The fight between Robert and Billy was over, and they were speak-
ing to each other again.
The children looked around the playground to see where Mrs. Law-
rence was. They wondered if she had heard Billy say the awful word. 
They thought perhaps she had.








	CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Two days later Mrs. Lawrence told the children, "This class has 
been asked to put on a puppet show at the town's Cultural Exposition. 
That's the event where Billy's poster will be judged, and we'll see if 
he gets the final prize."
Everyone looked at Billy, and he was smiling the biggest, broad-
est smile imaginable! It was new for him to be the center of attention. 
Nothing like this had happened to him before!  
"Now the question is," Mrs. Lawrence went on, "who will be our 
chief puppeteer."
Emily did not speak. If she had said anything, she would probably 
have set Steven off on one of his rages.
Steven was sitting on the edge of his seat, ready to say, yes, he 
would be the chief puppeteer.
Mrs. Lawrence stopped all discussion on the subject by saying, 
"We'll have try outs. That will settle the matter."
Steven groaned, but he didn't say anything. Mrs. Lawrence was 
sending a stern glance in his direction, and that kept him quiet.
Mrs. Lawrence hesitated a moment, then she said, "Why don't we 
give you each one week. Emily, one week from today, I want you to put 
on a puppet show for the class. And Steven, I want you to do the same.
"Then we will vote on which show we think is best. Either Steven 
or Emily will be chosen as chief puppeteer, depending on how that vote 
goes."

That day a week later, the shows were put on. The first was by 
Emily, the second by Steven. Mrs. Lawrence put up her hand and said, 
"Now we must vote."
She looked at David and asked him, "Which puppet show did you 
like, Steven's or Emily's?"
"Both," he said. "Or neither." He shrugged. "I don't know which 
one I liked."
When Sara was asked by Mrs. Lawrence, she said, "I don't know 
which one."
Peter said, "Both."
Robert said, "Neither."
Billy said, "I don't know."
Michael said, "I can't make up my mind."
"Children, you must make up your minds on this. We can't leave 
the issue undecided," Mrs. Lawrence said.
None of them said a word. Not one child wanted to say that 
Steven's show was best. Yet none of them wanted to say that Emily's was 
either.
"Well, it's almost time for you to go home," Mrs. Lawrence said. 
"Why don't we leave the matter where it is for the moment. But I want 
everyone to come in tomorrow morning with a choice. You choose Emily's 
puppet show as best, or you choose Steven's. But one way, or the other, 
make a choice."

So each child went home that afternoon, knowing there was a 
choice which had to be made.
David came over to Billy's house to play after school. As they 
were discussing the two puppet shows, Mrs. Wentworth came into the 
conversation. "Which show did you boys really like the best?" she 
asked.
"We liked Steven's," David answered. "But we won't say that."
"Why not?"
"Steven had a better story," said Billy. "And he did funny things 
with the puppets we liked. But we won't say that to Mrs. Lawrence. 
Steven has been too rough. He's forced us into saying that he is better 
at doing the puppets than Emily is."
Mrs. Wentworth said, "I'd say this is a case of overkill."
The boys laughed.
"Steven wanted so much for you to like what he was doing with the 
puppets, he forced you to say this thing, that thing, or the other. And 
now you don't want to say you like his puppet shows at all. He pushed 
too hard for what he wanted."
"What do we do now?" David asked.
"Well, when I go to a museum, I don't decide against a picture 
because I dislike the artist," Mrs. Wentworth said. "When I go to a 
theater, I don't decide I'm not fond of a play because the playwright 
is a disgusting person. You judge a piece of art for it's own sake, not 
because of the person who made it."
"Is a puppet show art?" Billy asked.
"It certainly is."
The boys looked at each other, and they knew how they would vote 
the next day.








	TWENTY-FOUR
When the crucial time came the next morning, and Mrs. Lawrence 
asked the class how they felt about the two puppet shows, about the 
same answers came up.
Robert said, "I don't know."
Michael said, "I haven't made up my mind."
Sara said, "I liked them both."
Little did Mrs. Lawrence know that, if she had called on either 
David or Billy, she would have gotten a precise answer. The kind of 
answer she wanted. 
Instead, her glance went around and around the room, stopping 
first on one person, then on someone else. She wasn't saying anything.
Finally her gaze rested on Steven himself, and she kept it there 
for a while. The room was quiet. Every child was absolutely silent. 
They were intent on finding out what was going to happen.
"Steven, which puppet show did you like best?" she asked him.
Steven stood up, and he shuffled his feet a little. But he was 
soon answering, "I liked Emily's show. I liked the music she put in it. 
I liked the way she made the puppets dance."
Mrs. Lawrence quickly looked at Emily and asked her, "Did you 
like Steven's puppet show?"
"Yes," Emily replied. "I liked his story. He always has good 
stories in his puppet shows."
Mrs. Lawrence looked from one of them to the other, apparently 
trying to decide what to do next. Finally she asked, "Do you two think 
you could co-operate in putting on a puppet show? You would, together, 
decide on which puppets you wanted, what music you wanted, and what the 
story for the puppet show would be."
Both Steven and Emily nodded.
"Well, then," Mrs. Lawrence said, relief in her voice, "we have 
our answer. We will have two chief puppeteers to put on our show, Emily 
and Steven! They'll co-operate in the management of the production."

So puppets were chosen. Steven and Emily worked closely together 
on this chore. They also picked out costumes for the puppets, scenery, 
music, and a story line. Children were chosen as backstage helpers, and 
it was decided who would be responsible for moving which of the puppets 
and making them talk. Usually a backstage helper had two puppets to 
handle. And only those two throughout the whole performance.
Then there were rehearsals of the puppet show. Rehearsal after 
rehearsal was held for weeks on end. Throughout all this Emily and 
Steven did co-operate superbly together. They did a fine job of filling 
the role of chief puppeteer.
The week of the Cultural Exposition finally came. On Monday of 
that week, major changes in the production were still being made. 
Mrs. Lawrence warned them that these changes would have to stop. They 
would have to decide on the show's final form once and for all. But 
they kept on making changes anyway, laughing each time they did.
The thought never came into anyone's head that, of course, the 
last minute changes would have to stop, because the children were going 
to lose their puppet theater temporarily. It would be taken away.
The Cultural Exposition would take place on Thursday of that 
week. On Tuesday afternoon after school, Robert's father came into the 
classroom, bringing Robert with him. They dismantled the puppet theater 
and carried the pieces outside to a truck Robert's father had waiting. 
Robert rode with his father in the truck to the Williams Street School 
where the Cultural Exposition would be held.
He helped his father unload the pieces and take them inside the 
school. Several men were standing around in the school's corridor. They 
offered to help carry the pieces to the auditorium stage and set the 
puppet theater up again there. Robert's father had more help on this 
end the work, but Robert still accompanied his father and the men. He 
felt maybe he could help just a little, and he wanted to see what was 
going on.
As Robert's father and the men helping him reassembled the puppet 
theater, Robert looked around the stage to see what was there. He saw 
something which made his eyes open wide!








	CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Wednesday morning Robert had quite a story to tell, when he came 
into the classroom. He was very excited! He ran up to Billy and ex-
claimed, "You won! You won the grand prize in the poster contest for 
the fifth grade! Your poster was best of all those in the whole town!"
Billy was stunned. He didn't know what to say. Then he began to 
have doubts.
Robert was still angry with him, he thought. He was lying. He was 
just teasing him, wanting to get his goat and make him mad.
"You did, you did," Robert said, eagerly.
"How do you know that Billy won the poster contest?" Mrs. Law-
rence asked.
"On the auditorium stage of the Williams Street School, I saw 
posters put up on easels. Some of them had blue ribbons hung over them. 
Billy's poster was there on a easel, with a blue ribbon hung over it."
"Well, that gives us a pretty good idea of what will happen 
tomorrow."
"And there were eight piles of programs on the floor," said 
Robert. "I picked one up and read it."
"What did it say?" David asked.
"It had tomorrow's date on it, and it said 'Cultural Exposition.' 
So I knew these were programs for the Cultural Exposition tomorrow. I 
read Billy's name on the list of kids who had won grand prizes in the 
poster contest."
"You're teasing me," Billy said. "I didn't win the poster 
contest!"
"Yes, yes, you did!" Robert protested. "I saw the proof that you 
have won!"
For a moment it looked as if the old fight between them might 
flare up again. Mrs. Lawrence broke it up by saying, "We're going to do 
arithmetic now. Go to your seats. Get out your books. And read the pro-
blems we began working on yesterday."

At supper that night, Billy told his parents, "I didn't win again 
in the town-wide poster contest the way Robert said I did. He was just 
teasing me. He's been mad at me, and this is his way to get back."
"Billy, you might have," said Mr. Wentworth. "It's time you 
realize what has happened. You showed us all you were right. We said 
you shouldn't put that bird on your poster because it was ugly, but you 
won with it! You won as one of three students in your class. Your post-
er won in the school-wide contest. And now maybe you've won in the 
town-wide contest."
"Robert was angry with you for a while," said Mrs. Wentworth. "I 
don't think he's angry with you now. I don't think he said this to be 
mean. It may be true. You may have won the grand prize for the fifth 
grade in the poster contest!"
Billy looked from one to the other of his parents. They were both 
saying the same thing. Maybe he should start believing they were right. 
There was a possibility he had won the contest.
He had! He had! He had! He had won the contest! The prize was 
his!

The next day in school, he went up to Robert and asked, "Are you 
mad at me?"
"No. Are you mad at me?" Robert asked Billy.
"No. Not now."
"But do you believe me? You won the contest! You did! You did!"
"I believe you," said Billy. "I believe you, half. Just half."
"Hey, you two over there," Peter called out. "Stop saying how 
much you like each other. We haven't got time for that today. We've got 
a puppet show to put on!"
The children were rushing around, checking the puppets' costumes, 
learning their lines, and making sure that props were packed and ready 
to go.
Right after school started, Mrs. Lawrence had to sit down and do 
sewing on two of the puppets' costumes.
"I wish someone had told me sooner that this mending had to be 
done," she said. "I would have done it Monday or Tuesday. Not today."
"Oh, I won't remember my lines!" Sara complained.
"Don't worry, you will," said Steven. "And anyway, even if we do 
lousy today, everyone will know we tried. That's what counts."
He was just like a professional, rounding people up and telling 
them where to go and what to do. There were many last minute things to 
be done.
Emily sat at her desk and hummed some tunes. She wanted to get 
the music for the show exactly right.
At ten o'clock the bell rang, and the children had to go out and 
get on the bus which would take them to the Williams Street School.
"Have we got everything?" Peter asked.
"I hope so," replied Steven.
"Anything forgotten will just have to remain behind in the class-
room," Mrs. Lawrence said. "We don't have time now to do anything but 
leave."
The children carried puppets, props, and pieces of paper on which 
key lines and stage directions were written. They had no musical in-
struments or sheets of music with them, because they were going to hum 
-- or perhaps sing -- the songs they planned for the show.
On the bus Mrs. Lawrence's fifth grade class tried to sit to-
gether. They didn't want the other children on the bus to see what they 
carried. That would spoil the surprise of their show. They were ex-
cited! Theirs was the only class in their school which would be giving 
entertainment that day.

Their level of excitement reached extraordinary heights when, 
after the puppet show had been performed, applause rang out from one 
side of the large school auditorium to the other. The children had come 
out from behind the puppet theater and were taking bows on the stage. 
The performance of the puppet show had gone off perfectly. They were 
very proud of themselves!
When the applause was through, they ran off the stage. They went 
down into the audience and took their seats quickly. There was another 
big moment coming up, and they did not want to miss seeing it.
A little while later Billy walked across the stage and received 
the grand prize for his poster. He took the blue ribbon in his hand and 
held it up for the audience to see. There was a wide smile on his face!

At the end of the day, Billy was standing in the parking lot of 
the Williams Street School. A flash of memory came to him, and he 
laughed inwardly to himself. This was the very parking lot where he had 
gotten lost the year before. How different this was for him! The Cul-
tural Exposition was over, and he was waiting to go home. But he cer-
tainly wasn't alone this year.
Robert, Peter, Michael, Emily, and David ran up and congratulated 
him. Soon all his classmates were around him, congratulating him on his 
prize. They were also congratulating themselves on how well they had 
done with the puppet show.
Almost every teacher in the Park Lane School came up to him in 
the next few moments. They hugged and kissed him, or shook his hand, 
and gave him their congratulations.
His parents stood nearby, with Mr. Reynolds and Mrs. Lawrence.
Soon a man came up and said to Billy, "I am a reporter on the Sun 
Times-Evening Star. What's your name?"
"Billy Wentworth," he replied.
"Are you the boy who won the grand prize in the poster contest 
for the fifth grade?"
"Yes."
"What's wrong with you?" the reporter asked.
Billy looked at Mr. Reynolds. It was the question he hated so 
much.
He thought a moment, then said, "My parachute didn't open."
"What did he say?" the reporter asked, giving that puzzled look 
Billy had seen so often when people didn't understand his speech.
Mr. Reynolds stepped forward. It seemed as though he were about 
to start laughing. There was amusement dancing in his eyes. "He said 
his parachute didn't open," he explained.
This didn't help much. The reporter seemed more puzzled than 
before.
 	Mr. Reynolds led him off just a short distance and said to him, 
"Billy has cerebral palsy, but don't ask him about that now. He's 
thinking of his classmates, their puppet show, his poster, and his 
prize. Nothing else. Let him have this moment."
Mr. Reynolds looked back toward Billy, who had dropped his blue 
ribbon. He was reaching down toward the ground to try to pick it up. 
There were plenty of people around, willing to do this for him. But he 
said he wanted try it for himself.
Mr. Reynolds thought, "Reach, Billy, reach. Reach hard for what 
you want."
                              THE END
Parachute/Baker                                      Chap. 20   Page 72

Parachute/Baker                                      Chap. 21   
Page 80

Parachute/Baker                                      Chap. 22   
Page 85

Parachute/Baker                                      Chap. 23   
Page 89

Parachute/Baker                                      Chap. 24   
Page 92

Parachute/Baker                                      Chap. 25   
Page 93