I began calculating how much time it would take me to save up for that new ten-speed bike with the racing handle bars and the metallic blue finish that I had seen on sale at the K-Mart in Dover. After that I could get one of those calculators that do square roots and percentages and everything and never have to worry about my math homework again, and then I could buy one of those Swiss Army Knives with the twenty-three functions that I had seen advertised in the Boy's Life magazine . . . Yes, sir--I was part of the working population now, and already had half a year's pay spent in my head!

After we finished with the first half of the route, which included Portland Street, Lower Main Street, and uptown, we rolled our bikes down the hill, around the corner past Triangle Motors, where they had a '56 T-Bird sitting on top of the used car office (I never did figure out how they got that thing up there) and over the bridge, then stopped in at Perry's Convenience Store and Gas Station for a tonic. It was pretty hot, and the air felt kind of muggy, so we were starting to sweat and get kind of thirsty. Timmy said he always stopped at Perry's anyway, since it was about the half-way point of the route, and he'd usually get a snack to help him get through the second half of the route, which because of the long ride out to old Widow Stanwick's house, took almost twice as long as the first half.


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