Typescript Form for Miscue Analysis
Book Title: A Corner of the Universe
Author: Ann M. Martin
1. On early summer mornings, Millerton is a sleep town, the houses
nodding in the heavy air.
1.________
2. Not even six-thirty and I can feel the humidity seeping through the
window shades and covering me like a blanket.
2.________
3. Everything I touch is damp.
4. I’m pretty sure I am the only one in the house who is awake.
5. I lie in bed for a while, listening to the birds.
3.________
4.________
5.________
6. I’m not about to spend the morning in bed, though, even if it is the
first day of summer vacation.
6.________
7. Some of my classmates wait all year long for summer just so they
can sleep late every morning.
7.________
8. Not me.
9. I have way too much to do.
8.________
9.________
10. I roll out of bed, dress in shorts and sandals and the sleeveless
blouse Miss Hagerty made for me on her Singer sewing machine.
10._______
11. The blouse is white with a big X of blue rickrack across the front.
11._______
12. I tiptoe down the hallway.
12._______
13. My room is at one end, the staircase at the other.
13._______
14. In between are my parents’ room, Miss Hagerty’s room, Mr.
Penny’s room, Angel valentine’s room, a small guest room, a
bathroom, a powder room.
14._______
15. (It is a long hallway.)
15._______
16. It must be 6:45, because just as I pass Mr. Penny’s room, it erupts
with chiming and clanging and peeping and chirping.
16._______
17. Mr. Penny used to run a clock repair shop.
17._______
18. He’s retired now, but his room is filled with clocks, and of course
they all run perfectly.
18._______
19. At quarter past, half past, and quarter to every hour, they ding and
cheep and whir, sounds we have all grown used to and can sleep
through at night.
19._______
20. On the hour itself, cuckoos pop out of their wooden houses, one
clock chimes like a ship’s bell, animals waltz, skaters glide.
20._______
21. Mr. Penny even has a grandfather clock, which I think he should
have, since he could be a grandfather if he had ever had any children.
21._______
22. A sun and a moon move across the face of that clock.
22._______
23. And even though Mr. Penny is not one for kids (not now, never
has been), he lets me wind it with the little crank once a week,
keeping my eye on the weights inside until they are in just the right
position.
23._______
24. Mr. Penny says I am responsible.
24._______
25. I tiptoe down the stairs and into the kitchen.
25._______
26. I am still the only one up.
26._______
27. This is good.
27._______
28. If I’m going to start breakfast for everyone I like to have the
kitchen to myself.
28._______
29. I set out some of the things Cookie will need when she arrives.
29._______
30. Cookie is our cook and she helps Mom with the meals for our
boarders.
30._______
31. Her real name is Raye Bennett, which I think is beautiful, a name
for a heroine in a novel, but everyone calls her Cookie, so I do too.
31._______
32. I sometimes wonder if she wouldn’t like to be called Raye or Mrs.
Bennett, but nobody in our family asks too many questions.
32._______
33. In the summer I am in charge of Miss Hagerty’s breakfast tray.
33._______
34. Miss Haagerty is the only one of our boarders who takes breakfast
in her room.
34._______
35. This is primarily because she is old, but also because oh my
goodness no one must see her before she has had a chance to put her
face on, and she needs energy for that job.
35._______
36. So every morning I make up her tray, which is always the same –
a soft-boiled egg in a cup, a plate of toast with the crusts cut off, and a
pot of tea.
36._______
37. Since Miss Hagerty appreciates beauty, I put a pansy in a bud
vase in the corner of her tray.
37._______
38. Seven-fifteen now, a key in the front door, and suddenly the
kitchen comes alive.
38._______
39. Cookie bustles in at the same time mom and Dad stumble
downstairs.
39._______
40. My parents are still in their pajamas, smelling of sleep, and in
Dad’s case, of Lavoris mouthwash.
40._______
41. “Good morning,” I say.
41._______
42. “Good morning!” cries Cookie, always cheerful.
42._______
43. “Morning,” mumble Mom and Dad.
43._______
44. Mom collapses onto a kitchen chair.
44._______
45. “Hattie,” she says, “you’ve already fixed Miss Hagerty’s tray?”
45._______
46. Well, yes.
46._______
47. I am holding it right in front of me.
47._______
48. “She’s industrious,” says Cookie, who has opened four
cupboards, taken the carton of eggs out of the refrigerator, and turned
on the fire under the skillet.
48._______
49. “Like me.”
49._______
50. I am pleased by Cookie’s comment, but I don’t know what to say,
so I say nothing.
50._______
51. Mom considers me.
51._______
52. “She could be a little less industrious and a little more outgoing.”
52._______
53. I stalk out of the kitchen, the moment ruined.
53._______
54. I would like to stomp up the stairs, but I can’t since I am carrying
the tray and I don’t want to slosh tea around.
54._______
55. I knock at Miss Hagerty’s door.
55._______
56. “Dearie?” she calls.
56._______
57. For as long as I have known Miss Hagerty (which is all my life,
because she has lived in our boardinghouse since before I was born),
she has never called me anything but Dearie.
57._______
58. When I was little, I thought maybe she couldn’t remember my
name.
58._______
59. But I notice she doesn’t call anyone else Dearie, so I am pleased
that it is her special name for me.
59._______
60. “Morning, Miss Hagerty,” I call back.
60._______
61. “Can I come in?”
61._______
62. “Entrez,” she replies grandly.
62._______
63. I balance the tray on one hand and open the door with my other.
63._______
64. I am just about the only person who is allowed to see Miss
Hagerty early in the morning before she has put her face on.
64._______
65. And she is something.
65._______
66. She is propped up in bed, a great perfumy mountain.
66._______
67. Some of the mountain is Miss Hagerty’s astonishing bedding –
floral sheets and quilts and lace-edged pillows, woolen throws that
Miss Hagerty and her friends knitted.
67._______
68. She sleeps under the same mound of bedding whether the
temperature is 90 degrees or 20 degrees.
68._______
69. The rest of the mountain is Miss Hagerty herself.
69._______
70. Miss Hagerty reminds me of her bedding – soft and perfumed, her
plump body always draped in floral.
70._______
71. I place the tray on Miss Hagerty’s lap.
71._______
72. She prefers to eat her breakfast in bed.
72._______
73. I draw back her curtains, then sit in an armchair and look around.
73._______
74. There is barely a free inch of space in Miss Hagerty’s room.
74._______
75. The sewing table is piled high with fabric.
75._______
76. From her quilted sewing bags spill cards of lace and bias tape,
buttons and needles and snaps.
76._______
77. Every other surface of the room is covered with perfume bottles,
china birds, wooden boxes, and glass bud vases.
77._______
78. Neatly arranged on her dresser are twelve framed photos of me,
one taken on the day I was born, and the others taken on each of my
birthday since then.
78._______
79. I see myself change from a chubby baby to a chubby toddler to a
skinny little girl to a skinny older girl, watch my hair lighten to near
white, see the curls fall away to be replaced by braids.
79._______
80. I think the photo mirror is a great honor.
80._______
81. Miss Hagerty says she considers me her granddaughter.
81._______
82. And I wish she were my grandmother.
82._______
83. That has to be a private wish, though, since I already have two
grandmothers.
83._______
84. It’s just that Granny lives in Kentucky and I hardly ever see her,
and Nana…well, Nana is Nana.
84._______
85. “Miss Hagerty,” I say while she begins the process of slathering
the toast with the egg, which she has mushed up in its cup, “what’s
wrong with being shy?”
85._______
86. “Nothing at all, Dearie.
86._______
87. Why?”
87._______
88. “I don’t know.”
88._______
89. I can’t quite look at Miss Hagerty.
89._______
90. “Well, don’t you worry about getting a boyfriend.
90._______
91. Trust me, even shy girls get boyfriends.”
91._______
92. That was the last thing on my mind, but it is a fascinating thought.
92._______
93. Almost as fascinating as the fact that Miss Hagerty, never married
herself, is practically an expert on boyfriends and husbands.
93._______
94._______
94. Not to mention on hairstyling and makeup.
95. She is always saying things to me like, “Dearie, you could soften
those sharp cheekbones of yours with a little blush – right here.”
95._______
96. Or, “Look, Dearie, how this eyeliner will make your gray eyes
spring to life.”
96._______
97. I am not allowed to wear makeup yet, but I store up these tips for
when I am in high school.
97._______
98. Later, when I leave Miss Hagerty’s room with the breakfast tray, I
try to imagine myself with a boyfriend.
98._______
99. I could be like Zelda Gilroy on Dobie Gillis.
99._______
100. Or maybe I should be like Thalia Menninger, since she’s the girl
Dobie is always after.
100.______
101. And I wouldn’t put him off, like Thalia does.
101.______
102. I would be happy to sit with Dobie in the malt shop.
102.______
103. He’s a little old for me, but he’s awfully cute.
103.______
104. I would wear swirly skirts, and blouses with puffy sleeves, and
wide patent leather belts, and I would tease my hair so it puffed out
behind a pink elastic headband.
104.______
105. At the malt shop, Dobie and I would buy one malt with two
straws so we could sip from it together, and everyone who saw us
would know we were boyfriend and girlfriend.
105.______
106. I only hope that Dobie would do the talking for both of us and it
really wouldn’t matter that I’m shy.
106.______
107. As I carry Miss Hagerty’s tray down the hall Mr. Penny comes
out of his room wearing wrinkled pants and a wrinkled shirt, and his
morning face.
107.______
108. I say, “Hi, Mr. Penny,” and keep on going because he absolutely
cannot have a conversation until he has a cup of coffee in him.
108.______
109, I take the tray back to the kitchen, and join Mom and Dad, now
dressed and fresh looking, in the dining room for breakfast.
109.______
110. Mr. Penny will join us later, I know, but Angel Valentine will
not.
110.______
111. Angel watches her waistline, plus she is ambitious about her
secretarial job at the bank, and she says it makes a good impression if
she is at her desk in the morning before her boss arrives.
111.______
112. So Angel breezes into the dining room dressed like on of those
Dobie Gillis girls, gulps down a cup of coffee, and runs out the door
calling, “Enjoy your first day of vacation, Hattie.”
112.______
113. I think Angel is absolutely wonderful, and I wish I were her little
sister, even though I have known her for only a month.
113.______
114. After breakfast, everybody bustles off.
114.______
115. Mr. Penny, who is generally in a hurry, says he must go into
town lickety-split, right now, he has errands to do.
115.______
116. Miss Hagerty decides to sit on the front porch and knit.
116.______
117. Cookie gets busy with lunch.
117.______
118. Toby diAngeli shows up to help Mom clean the bedrooms.
118.______
119. And Dad goes to work in his third-floor studio.
119.______
120. My father is an artist.
120.______
121. He has been commissioned to paint two portraits for a friend of
Nana and Papa’s.
121.______
122. I plan to stand behind him and watch, which Dad swears does
not make him nervous.
122.______
123. Mostly what I watch are his right hand and the paintbrush at the
end of it.
123.______
124. That hand, the one that’s so important to him that he has actually
tried to insure it, is a wondrous thing.
124.______
125. Stained with ink, sticky with paint, fingernails surround by
grime that can only be removed with turpentine, his hand flashes a
paintbrush across a canvas and transforms it from a wash of white to a
face or a country road or a bowl of fruit, with depth and light and
shadows.
125.______
126. I feel like I am watching a magician.
126.______
127. Sometimes Dad gives me a small canvas of my own and we
paint together.
127.______
128. I stick to abstracts, except for horses.
128.______
129. My father is almost always doing something interesting.
129.______
130. If he’s not painting, then he’s working in our gardens.
130.______
131. Or fixing something in the house.
131.______
132. Or making greeting cards (he can even make the kind that pop
up).
132.______
133. Or taking photos and developing them himself.
133.______
134. Or running around with the movie camera.
134.______
135. Which is why I can feel that angry flush creep across my cheeks
whenever Nana implies that Mom married beneath her.
135.______
136. My father can do anything, it seems.
136.______
137. But according to Nana he has cast a shadow on our family by
turning our home into a boardinghouse.
137.______
138. Dad, however, says he is lucky to be able to support his family
and his career by running the boardinghouse.
138.______
139. I hurry up the stairs to the third floor and am about to dash into
Dad’s studio when I come to such a fast stop that I have to grab on to
the door to catch myself.
139.______
140. I have almost stepped on Dad’s project.
140.______
141. He’s not painting after all.
141.______
142. “Ooh, what is this?” I say.
142.______
143. “Another movie?”
143.______
144. Dad spent several weeks last year making an animated movie
called Queen for a Day.
144.______
145. In it a very mean cardboard queen with curly hair chases her
husband the king all around their castle, trying to kill him.
145.______
146. The king gets the better of her, though, and has her head
chopped off.
146.______
147. At which point, the queen flies up to heaven with angel wings
but is turned away and sent downward to be consumed by orange and
red paper flames.
147.______
148. The movie is three and a half minutes long.
148.______
149. I have watched it over and over again.
149.______
150. I am about the only audience the movie has ever had.
150.______
151. I look at what is spread on the floor now.
151.______
152. I do not see any queens or flames or angel wings.
152.______
153. What I see instead are hundreds of pieces of paper in varying
sizes, shapes, and colors.
153.______
154. As I watch, my father inches a small blue paper circle closer to a
larger blue paper circle.
154.______
155. Then he takes a frame of it with his 16-millimeter movie
camera.
155.______
156. “It’s called Abstract,” Dad replies.
156.______
157. “The shapes are going to move all around the screen.
157.______
158. They’ll rearrange themselves, form new patterns.
158.______
159. The colors will shift…”
159.______
160. He inches the circle even closer to the other circle, then edges a
tiny blue dot into the picture.
160.______
161. I think about Nana.
161.______
162. Nana wishes Dad had a real job, like Papa does.
162.______
163. She wishes he were a lawyer or a businessman, something
proper.
163.______
164. But an artist?
164.______
165. Worse, an artist who sometimes makes things he’s not even
going to sell?
165.______
166. As if Dad is reading my mind, he says, still inching those shapes
around.
166.______
167. “By the way, nana is coming over for lunch today.”
167.______
168. “Nana?” I repeat.
168.______
169. “Yes.”
169.______
170. “Is coming for lunch?”
170.______
171. “Yes.”
171.______
172. “Coming over here for lunch?”
172.______
173. “Yes.”
173.______
174. “For lunch today?”
174.______
175. Dad looks up and smiles at me.
175.______
176. “We’ll survive, Hattie.”
176.______
177. I am not so sure.
177.______
178. Suddenly I feel like getting out of the house.
178.______
179. I look at my watch.
179.______
180. Ten o’clock.
180.______
181. That is a fine time for my daily walk into town.
181.______
182. Plus on my way I have to top at Betsy’s to say good-bye to her.
182.______
183. If I take long enough with both of these activities maybe I’ll
miss lunch altogether.
183.______
184. “I’m going over to Betsy’s,” I say.
184.______
185. “See you later.”
185.______
186. I don’t know whether Dad hears me.
186.______
187. He has to fiddle with that dot.
187.______