Free Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack! by M. E. Kerr Page B

that fund-raising job.”
    “I thought he was never happy being a fund raiser?”
    “You know better than that. So do I. But your father’s been going through a lot since he was fired. He was hurt by that.”
    “What did Mrs. Hocker say?” Tucker asked.
    “I’m getting to that, Tucker. I want you to understand why your father and I haven’t been paying much attention to you lately.”
    “I get it,” Tucker said.
    “Do you really? Because I know you’ve been going through a lot, too.”
    “Is that what Mrs. Hocker said?”
    “Mrs. Hocker said you’ve been trying to be very attentive to her niece.”
    “I haven’t been trying ,” Tucker said. “I’m not even sure I’ve been that attentive.”
    “Are you falling for Natalia, Tucker?”
    “Falling for her?”
    “Tucker, don’t pretend I’m talking Latin to you. You know exactly what I mean!”
    “What difference does it make?” Tucker said. “Do we have to settle it right now, over hamburgers?”
    “Tucker, Mrs. Hocker thinks you’re a little too involved with the girl.”
    “So what?”
    “You know the girl’s background.”
    “Some of it. She’s been in a special school,” Tucker said.
    “She’s from a very, very, bad background,” his mother said. “It wasn’t easy for Helen Hocker to tell me about it. It’s her sister’s child, you know.”
    “I’m not planning to marry her yet.”
    “Tucker, don’t be flip! Natalia Line isn’t your ordinary high-school girl. Her mother was a mental case, and her father killed himself.”
    “Oh.” Tucker let that information digest.
    “Yes. She’s been through a great deal in her fifteen years.”
    Tucker took a bite of his hamburger. He finally said, “Well, what’s that got to do with what we do together?”
    “What do you do together?”
    “Nothing,” Tucker said. “Nothing special.”
    “Mrs. Hocker said she never hears any talking when she goes by a room with you and Natalia in it.”
    “We’re not great talkers.”
    “What do you do together?” his mother said. “What kind of a relationship is it?”
    “We listen to records and stuff.”
    “Sitting on the same bed in the bedroom?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Tucker, Mrs. Hocker doesn’t want you closing yourself off in a bedroom with Natalia.”
    “The door’s always open. That’s where the record player is. That’s where Nader usually is.”
    “Don’t do it anymore.”
    “Okay.”
    “Mrs. Hocker thinks her niece isn’t ready for such an emotional involvement.”
    “Okay, I’ll ignore her,” Tucker said.
    “Don’t ignore her. In fact, you’ve been invited for Christmas supper,” his mother said. “But don’t lock yourself away with the girl.”
    “For Pete’s sake!” Tucker said.
    “And there’s something else.”
    “What?”
    “This P. John Knight. I didn’t particularly like him. Your father didn’t like him at all. And Mr. and Mrs. Hocker don’t want Dinky to see him again. He’s very hostile.”
    “He’s really not a bad guy,” Tucker said.
    “I heard about that Friday night,” his mother said. “Mrs. Hocker works very hard for DRI. She really cares about those young people. She’s a very earnest woman, Tucker. This world could use more people like her, people who care what happens to the less fortunate.”
    “Look at it from Dinky’s viewpoint,” Tucker said. “She’s never had a boyfriend, Mom.”
    “That’s the point.”
    “What’s the point?”
    “She’s gone overboard for this Knight boy. He’s a bad influence. All the things the Hockers believe in, he belittles.”
    “Mom, P. John means well. He wants to help Dinky lose weight.”
    “The Hockers would rather have her plump and unprejudiced than thin and intolerant,” Mrs. Woolf said.
    “I bet that’s something Mrs. Hocker said.”
    “Nevertheless,” his mother admitted, “don’t you do anything to encourage the relationship.”
    “Relationship,” Tucker sighed unhappily. “They’ve only had one real