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Page 57
Chapter 7
"Have a good sleep?"
"Uh-huh."
"Feel better?"
"Yup."
"Good," Terry said. "Sure look a lot better."
Matty nodded, then wolfed down his bowl of Count Choculas. Terry had stocked a cabinet full of health-store granola and muesli, and all he liked was those brown sugar pellets in the shape of vampires. While he ate he studied the offer for a pair of googly eyeglasses on the back.
He did look a lot better than he had last night. In fact, remarkably so. The purple crescent under his eye had faded to a mere shadow. The puffiness was gone, and the cheek welts were faint red traces. And all in a mere fifteen hours. Either Terry's anxiety had exaggerated the extent of the bruises, or his pubescent recovery powers were in high gear.
Still, Terry was determined to have Dr. Tojian examine him. While there was a remote possibility of cheekbone fracture, what especially pestered her mind was the possibility he had experimented with drugs.
Betty Gorawlski's alarm aside, the front page of today's Boston Globe reported that the use of cocaine, marijuana and LSD among young people was on the rise, according to a University of Michigan study. The greatest increase was in children under fourteen. The story said that while drug abuse had dropped among inner-city youths, it was on the rise in the suburbs. Terry wondered grimly

 
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