Volume 1, No. 1

The Plague / Hooper ... 11 

approaching too closely. Every now and then, a huddle of girls would form on the playground like a coven of witches and you just knew by their hushed murmurings that they were protecting themselves from the plague.
It was not long after "the program" went underground that it began to lose steam and peter out all together. The days were getting longer and warmer and the thoughts of all Grade 4s -- boys and girls alike -- were turning to dreams of summer vacations. Dreams of riding bikes and swimming in the creek and building forts in the woods -- and best of all -- being free of teachers who just couldn't understand the complexities of Grade 4 boy/girl relationships.
I was of such things we spoke, Ricky Brighton and me, as we rode our bikes home on the last day of school. We were both filled with the rapture of our nine-year-old daydreams -- until my bike chain fell off at the end of