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After Einstein had read Frog and Toad All Year, Nora closed the book and said, "All right Now, answer yes or no to these questions"

They were in the kitchen, where Travis wasa cheese-and-potato casserole for dinner Nora and Einstein were sitting on chairs at the kitchen table Travis paused in his cooking to watch the dog take the quiz

Nora said, "First-when Frog came to see Toad on a winter’s day, Toad was in bed and did not want to coht?"

Einstein had to sidle around on his chair to free his tail and wag it Yes

Nora said, "But finally Frog got Toad outside, and they went ice-skating"

One bark No

"They went sledding," she said

Yes

"Very good Later that saift Was it a sweater?"

No

"A new sled?"

No

"A clock for his mantel?"

Yes, yes, yes

"Excellent!" Nora said "Nohat shall we read next? How about this One Fantastic Mr Fox"

Einstein wagged his tail vigorously

Travis would have enjoyed taking a ’s education, but he could see that working intensely with Einstein was having an enormously beneficial effect on Nora, and he did not want to interfere Indeed, he so the value of teaching the pooch to read, ress or its taste in reading h to redouble Nora’s determination to stick with the lessons, to spend evenEinstein never reacted to those negative re exhibited forbearance because he understood the little gaed

Exactly why Nora’s teaching chores made her blossom was not clear Perhaps it was because she had never interacted with anyone-not even with Travis or with her Aunt Violet-as intensely as she had with the dog, and the ed her to coift of literacy to the dog was extre person who took pleasure in sharing with others, yet she had spent all of her life as a recluse without a single previous opportunity to express that side of her personality Now she had a chance to give of herself, and she was generous with her tienerosity she found joy

Travis also suspected that, through her relationship with the retriever, she was expressing a natural talent for oodwith a child, and she often spoke to Einstein so tenderly and affectionately that she sounded as if she were addressing her own

Whatever the reason, Nora beca as she worked with Einstein Gradually forsaking her shapeless dark dresses for summery white cotton slacks, colorful blouses, jeans and T-shirts, she seelorious dark hair redone at the beauty salon and did not brush out all the styling this tily In conversation, she met Travis’s eyes and seldom looked shyly away from him, as she had done previously She was quicker to touch him, too, and to put an ared, and they kissed with ease now, although their kissing reers in the early stages of courting

On July 14, Nora received news that lifted her spirits even higher The Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office called to tell her that it was not going to be necessary for her to appear in court to testify against Arthur Streck In light of his previous cri a plea of innocence and waging a defense against charges of atte He had instructed his attorney to plea-bargain with the DA As a result, they dropped all charges except assault, and Streck accepted a prison sentence of three years, with a provision that he serve at least two years before being eligible for parole Nora had dreaded the trial Suddenly she was free, and in celebration she got slightly tipsy for the first tiht ho material, Einstein discovered there were Mickey Mouse picture books for children and co was as jubilant about that discovery as Nora was about the resolution of the charges against Arthur Streck His fascination with Mickey and Donald Duck and the rest of the Disney gang remained a ging his tail, and he slobbered all over Travis in gratitude

Everything would have been rosy if, in the h the house fro out at the darkness with obvious fear

3

By Thursday , July 15, ale, twoand The Outsider had escaped from Banodyne, Lemuel Johnson sat alone in his office on an upper floor of the federal building in Santa Ana, the county seat of Orange County He stared out theat the pollutant-rich haze that was trapped under an inversion layer, blanketing the western half of the county and adding to the ree heat The bile-yellow day matched his sour mood