Then she startid screaming. Dont you ever touch her again. Youll hurt her. Shes a baby. You got no business touching her. I dint know it then but I guess I know it now that she thought I was going to hurt the baby because I was too dumb to know what I was doing. Now that makes me feel bad because I would never of hurt the baby.
When I go to Dr Straus office I got to tell him about April 6-Today, I learned, the comma, this is, a, comma (,) a period, with, a tail, Miss Kinnian, says its, importent, because, it makes writing, better, she said, somebody, could lose, a lot, of money, if a comma, isnt in, the right, place, I got, some money, that I, saved from, my job, and what, the foundation, pays me, but not, much and, I dont, see how, a comma, keeps, you from, losing it, But, she says, everybody, uses commas, so Ill, use them, too April 7-I used the comma wrong. Its punctuation. Miss Kinnian told me to look up long words in the dictionary to learn to spell them. I said whats the difference if you 27 can read it anyway. She said its part of your education so from now on Ill look up all the words Im not sure how to spell. It takes a long time to write that way but I think Im remembering more and more.
Anyway thats how come I got the word punctuation right. Its that way in the dictionary. Miss Kinnian says a period is punctuation too, and there are lots of other marks to learn. I told her I thought she meant all the periods had to have tails and be called commas. But she said no.
She said; You, got. to-mix? them! up: She showd? me” how, to mix! them; up, and now! I can. mix (up all? kinds of punctuation- in, my. writing! There” are lots, of rules; to learn? but. Im’ get’ting them in my head: One thing? I, like: about, Dear Miss Kinnian: (thats~ the way? it goes; in a business, letter (if I ever go! into business?) is that, she: always; gives me’ a reason” when-I ask. She“s a genius! I wish? I cou’d be smartlike-her; Punctuation, is? fun!
April 8-What a dope I am! I didn’t even understand what she was talking about. I read the grammar book last night and it explains the whole thing. Then I saw it was the same way as Miss Kinnian was trying to tell me, but I didn’t get it. I got up in the middle of the night and the whole thing straightened out in my mind.
Miss Kinnian said that the TV working, just before I fell asleep and during the night, helped out. She said I reached a plateau. That’s like the flat top of a hill.
After I figured out how punctuation worked, I read over all my old progress reports from the beginning. Boy, did I have crazy spelling and punctuation! I told Miss Kinnian I ought to go over the pages and fix all the mistakes, but she said, “No, Charlie, Professor Nemur wants them just as they are. That’s why he lets you keep them after they’re photostated-to see your own progress. You’re coming along fast, Charlie.”
That made me feel good. After the lesson I went down and played with Algernon. We don’t race any more.
April 10-I feel sick. Not like for a doctor, but inside my chest it feels empty, like getting punched and a heartburn at the same time. I wasn’t going to write about it, but I guess I got to, because it’s important. Today was the first day I ever stayed home from work on purpose. Last night Joe Carp and Frank Reilly invited me to a party. There were lots of girls and Gimpy was there and Ernie too. I remembered how sick I got last time I drank too much, so I told Joe I didn’t want to drink anything. He gave me a plain coke instead. It tasted funny, but I thought it was just a bad taste in my mouth. We had a lot of fun for a while.
“Dance with Ellen,” Joe said. “She’ll teach you the steps.” Then he winked at her like he had something in his eye. She said, “Why don’t you leave him alone?”
He slapped me on the back. “This is Charlie Gordon, my buddy, my pal. He’s no ordinary guy-he’s been promoted to working on the dough-mixing machine. All I did was ask you to dance with him and give him a good time. What’s wrong with that?”
He pushed me up close against her. So she danced with me. I fell three times and I couldn’t understand why because no one else was dancing besides Ellen and me. And all the time I was tripping because somebody’s foot was always sticking out.
They were all around in a circle watching and laughing at the way we were doing the steps. They laughed harder every time I fell, and I was laughing too because it was so funny. But the last time it happened I didn’t laugh. I picked myself up and Joe pushed me down again. Then I saw the look on Joe’s face and it gave me a funny feeling in my stomach.
“He’s a scream,” one of the girls said. Everybody was laughing. “Oh, you were right, Frank,” choked Ellen. “He’s a one man side show.” Then she said, “Here, Charlie, have a fruit.” She gave me an apple, but when I bit into it, it was fake.
Then Frank started laughing and he said, “I told ya he’d eat it. C’n you imagine anyone dumb enough to eat wax fruit?”
