Once Around the Carousel

Chapter Seven

"Of course you couldn't sit like this, sweetie," Titus jumped in. "There's no way you could bend your hip out with the pins holding it in place. Here, try this," he offered, lifting himself and tucking his ankles under his butt; and watching as Linda did the same.

"Yeah, I can do that," She said, smiling.

"See how straight and tall your back becomes sitting like this. It's called Thunderbolt posture. And Sharon, the way you're sitting is called the Lotus position. They're both postures for Yoga meditation."

"I know what Yoga is." Linda blurted out. "That's something people in India do."

"That's right. It's one of the things I studied when I lived there."

Linda started bouncing on her folded legs. "You've been to India? I did a report all about India last year. Remember Shar?"

"Yeah, it's all she told me about for like a month."

"Why did you pick India for your report?" Titus asked.

"I guess because Robin, she was this tutor I had, she went there. And it's really different from America. I wanted to learn about somewhere different from here."

"You know Linda; I went there for the same reason. So, what can you tell me about India?"

Linda took a deep breath and began explaining what she remembered. Mostly about the British rule and India's struggle for independence. Nodding as a sign she'd finished, she then remembered two more things she thought were important. "Oh, and their Prime Minister, that's like their President, is a woman. So that's kinda cool, cuz we'd never have a woman president. And the Civil Disobedience thing Mr. Gandhi did is what Martin Luther King taught the Negroes here."

"Wow, that's pretty good Linda; I doubt I would have said it any better myself."

"There's something that bothers me, though."

"What's that?"

"Well, Mr. Gandhi was a religious guy, right. And he taught everyone they should be peaceful, even when people treat you unfairly. And Martin Luther King says the same thing's true. But Mr. Gandhi was a Hindu and Martin Luther King's Christian, and they believe the same thing." Titus listened, thinking how pleased Linda's tutor would be. "And just for trying to get people to get along, Mr. Gandhi got killed, and that doesn't seem fair at all."

"When you learn more about history, Linda, you'll see that change is what scares people the most," Titus offered as the beginning of his explanation. As he spoke, Sharon interrupted a couple of times with questions while Linda sat, absorbing every word. "So, really because they taught peace, they scared people. Does that answer your question, at least a little bit?" Titus asked as he finished.

"Yeah, it still doesn't seem fair," Linda said, looking down at the scars marring her lap. Not being at the public beach, Linda had taken off her shorts, and her welted scars stood in harsh contrast against the pale skin of her rarely sunned thighs. "I guess things aren't always fair, huh."

Titus had only heard about Linda's scars. He'd only seen tails of her scars sticking out from under her shorts when he'd come down before. Sitting down this time, he made a point of not staring. Now, with her tacit permission, he looked full on. "No, they sure aren't," he said, reaching out and holding Linda's hand for a moment. "So, do you have any other questions?"

"No. It just bothers me when I don't understand things. I had this tutor, she was super nice, and whenever I asked about anything, she helped me find out about it. She brought me books and stuff, cuz I had this big cast so my legs couldn't move. Then when they took it off, she took me to all these cool places. Once, we went to the hospital and sat behind a window watching my doctor operate on someone, which was kinda gross. And she took me to meet a guy at Yale a couple of times, that's the college where she used to go, and he told me all about our ocean. It's funny when I don't understand things; it sits right in the front of my head and sort of itches till I get the answer."