:52:01
Whether they were few or many did not matter a jot.
:52:05
Grace had bared her throat to the town
and it had responded with a great gift:
:52:10
with friends.
:52:17
No gangster could deprive her of this
meeting with the township,
no matter how many guns in the world.
:52:23
And should the strokes of the bell did not reach 15,
she knew now that she meant something to the town
:52:29
and that her stay had been of significance.
:52:32
Not much, perhaps, but nevertheless,
a trace she had left.
:52:38
And the first in her young life
in which she took pride.
:52:55
Grace stiffened as the bell began its toll.
:53:41
Fourteen. Grace counted.
:53:45
So McKay must have voted for her after all,
and if so, why not Chuck, too?