“I know what I say, Franny. Nonetheless.”

“Can we go, too?” asked Winifred.

“Well,” said Sina, clearly not happy about the idea, “I suppose I can’t stop you.”

I couldn’t imagine why Sina wouldn’t want Winifred and me to go. We were charming company. So we put the eggs and milk in the truck and ran inside to get any muck we had accumulated off us and to put on clean shirts.

* * *

At Brookman’s everyone was drinking coffee. Sina gave us each a nickel again, and I wondered if she’d forgotten she’d done so on Saturday because a nickel was usually a once-a-week occurrence at best. Winifred and I decided to get the candy that was easiest to split among the four of us, as we didn’t feel that it was fair to shut Wilfred and Zebediah out of any unusual nickel bonanzas that came our way. We were poised between the Smarties and the Sugar Babies when I noticed that Sina was behaving in a most peculiar way. She stood seemingly among the gossiping women but still slightly outside their tight little circle and a bit closer to the counter where the radio sat. And then while I watched, her hand surreptitiously slid across the counter and gave the volume control just the slightest tweak. I stopped choosing candy and kept my eye on her after that, and sure enough a few minutes later her hand made the journey to the volume dial again. She was standing in a strange position, her eyes turned expectantly to the women, and she seemed to nod when they did and laugh when they did, but from her expression I didn’t think she was hearing a thing that was being said.

“What about bubble gum?” asked Winifred in a loud voice. “Instead of Sugar Babies?”

“Shh!” said Sina in a louder voice that caused everyone to stop talking.

“I … I didn’t mean you,” Sina said to the ladies. Everyone continued to look at her inquisitively. “I didn’t mean you either,” she said to Winifred. “Or you,” she said to me.

“Who did you mean then, dear?” asked Mrs. Brookman.

“I meant, um, I meant the man on the radio. He has one of those annoying voices,” said Sina. Then she blushed.

“He can’t hear you,” said Miss Macy. “I know because I have also tried to converse with those smart and interesting radio men. Sometimes it gets so lonely. In the house. By myself. The radio men seem like such pleasant fellows. But I’ve come to the conclusion that they can’t hear me. No matter how loudly I speak.”

“Which radio men, dear?” asked Mrs. Brookman.

“All of them,” said Miss Macy.

The ladies quietly rolled their eyes, Winifred and I bought our candy, and the conversation picked up again so Sina, Winifred, and I slunk out and went back home to have lunch.

After lunch Winifred and I dutifully split the candy into four piles, but it was very unsatisfactory, as Wilfred, instead of exclaiming at our sense of fair play and his delight at having been unexpectedly gifted with confectionary largesse, just put his candy in his pocket and went back outside to help Old Tom.