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Richard had a terrible case of acne when he was just fourteen, and it was then that he started to refrain from looking directly at people; everyone thought that he was examining their shoes and found him to be terribly shy until you happened to stand next to him and found that he was a great conversationalist because he read all kinds of interesting things and was very happy to share and to listen. His face never really improved as the acne yielded deep pock marks. So Richard never looked at you, and it would be hard to find a person in town who could tell you his eye color.
Eileen, however, was an entirely different story. She had a case of strabismus, with one eye looking at you and the other seemingly focusing on the wall to her right. It was disconcerting because the wall eye drew your attention, and you didn’t want to stare. So, there you have it. One of them wouldn’t look at you and the other you couldn’t look at. So, as long as you obeyed these rules of sideways conversation, they were truly delightful people, as was Ralph.
Ralph himself was another Pritchard story. The Pritchards had tried for many years to have children, and they just weren’t blessed until surprisingly, Eileen got pregnant at age forty-one. When Ralph was born, everyone in the town was elated; a number of people came into the candy store and gave Richard casseroles, and lasagna, and eggplant parmesan – and baby things, tons of baby things. People didn’t want to disturb Eileen right away, but they were anxious to see the baby. After about ten days, Kate just picked up and left the diner when they weren’t busy, walked over to Sugars, and asked if she could just go up the steps and see the little one. Richard took her upstairs. Eileen and Richard were just cooing and cuddling, and never putting Ralph down. Kate wanted so much to hold him. I heard tell that, when she left, Kate was blood-drained white and definitely upset. She realized that Ralph had Down Syndrome – and she thought that Eileen and Richard didn’t even recognize it. Word got around quickly, and some townspeople wanted to express something akin to condolences. After all,