WEBVTT

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I can't see any of
you, it's very strange.

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I've never had that experience.

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When I've read here
in the past, I've

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always been able to
see everybody's faces.

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I'm going to read from the first
two chapters of this new book

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Rowing in Eden.

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I tried to cut it so we
wouldn't be here for too long.

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And what I did was
just I tried to cut out

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those things that weren't
essential to understanding

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the first few chapters.

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[MIC NOISE] Was that me?

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[LAUGHTER]

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OK, I'm going to put these on.

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"July, a queer hazy
day, overhead the sun

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made an odd white bulge in
the pale, pale sky like ice

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thought Franny, ice melting
into a glass of milk.

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Or maybe a knee,
an eerie thought,

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maybe a knee or an
elbow that poked out

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from a pool of concrete.

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Franny Wahl staring out
through the plate glass

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window that belonged to the
showroom of the Pynch Marina.

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Many shiny boats hunkering
quietly at her back.

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Frances Jean, she
was 13 years old,

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face set in a look both
obstinate and dreaming.

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Frances Jean Wahl thought
about the summer sky, yes,

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made up her string of words to
describe the sun in that sky,

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but other words ran
in her head as well.

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We don't do that Franny.

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Those were the words
she meant to shut out

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by playing with words of her
own, we don't do that Franny.

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Outside the Marina, Lakeside
Drive ran bumper to bumper

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with irritable
tourist traffic, this

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was Pynch Lake a town
of 20,000 in the roughly

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rectangular state of Iowa.

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The noise from the
traffic, course engine

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pops rising from a tangle
of music and machinery

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on both the street and the lake.

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That noise poured through
the Marina's open door

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and was overlaid by
the sound of a radio

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playing in the back room.

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After late breaking news,
we'll return with summer 65

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countdown, the announcer
said in a voice

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that was as much a
honk as the honks

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from the cars in the street.

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And still over all of this.

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Franny Wahl heard, we
don't do that Franny.

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At the four way stomp, a
pretty girl in a black swimsuit

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stood up from behind the
wheel of her convertible

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and began to yell.

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The object of her fury,
a man in a station wagon,

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who had hoped to back his
boat trailer into the lake

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via the ramp at the
end of the parking

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lot that served both the
Marina and the Top Hat club.

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Somehow, this man had
gotten his trailer hung up

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on the curb in
front of the Top Hat

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and now he blocked traffic
for the entire intersection.

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More horns, the driver
of the station wagon

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mouth working in his red,
red mouth climb from his car.

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Something-- something,
the mellifluous newscaster

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said of the closure
of the investigation

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into the misconduct of
Senate employee, Bobby Baker.

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As Franny's father often became
agitated by such news reports,

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the newscasters
words gave the girl

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the same sort of passing qualm,
she might have experienced,

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had the Marina's fluorescent
lights flickered.

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Still she did not actually
listen to the report,

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she did not much care
about news of the nation.

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She did however pity the
driver of the station

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wagon, a big man, a good
6 foot 5, 250 pounds.

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He's sure to come untuck
in back as vainly,

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he tried to lift the boat and
its trailer over the curve

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and into the street.

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Franny let forehead tip against
the cool glass of the showroom

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window, she closed
her eyes because she

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felt sorry for the driver
and appalled by him.

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And even a little
humiliated by his plight

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because he reminded her
too much of her father.

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Still the driver
did not entirely

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distract her from the words,
we don't do that, Franny.

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She could not seem
to stop herself

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from holding those
words up for inspection,

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pouring them back and forth
like a string of beads,

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a handful of pebbles, she
tasted them, something

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a little chemical like
copper, like a penny

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held on the tongue."