（外文电子版资料）Amy Sterling Casil - Jonny Punkinhead.pdfVIP

AMY STERLING CASIL JONNY PUNKINHEAD * Fiction writers often have a wide variety of jobs before they make a living off their fiction sales. Sometimes the writers already have writing careers -- nonfiction writing careers. Amy Sterling Casil is one such writer. Her nonfiction has appeared in womens and literary publications. Lately she has concentrated on her short fiction. She went to the Clarion Writers Workshop, and she was a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest in 1995. * To make ends meet, she works as the Executive Director of Family Service Association Home Again Project. She lives in Redlands, California with her husband and daughter. Outside my office, I hear the rubbery squeal of a wheelchair, followed by the damp exhalation of a sick childs sigh. The shadow of the pump-kin-headed boy, Jonny, crosses the wall like a dark hand slapped on a sheet. Come in, I call through the open door. Sure, Dr. Arian, Jonny says, lisping. It sounds like Sssir, docker awrin, but Im used to the way hc talks. Jonny wheels into my office. Hes very limber with the chair. In his hand is a small, crooked paper Santa and something else that I cant quite fathom, made of festive paper. I finish the letter Im composing and smile. Its not easy to smile at Jonny. He holds the paper Santa up. I made this for Gramma, he says. Thats a great St. Nick, I say. My mouth twists in a funny way, and I dont like the feeling. His grandmother hasnt visited him for at least three years, yet Jonny makes her something for every holiday. Her presents are all in a shoebox, tucked neatly in his cubby in Dorm A., where the seriously ill children live. This is for you, he says, holding out the other bit of artwork. I see now that its pieces of paper, cut and pasted to look like a Christmas present. The little present has I love you, Dr. Arlan written on it in spidery letters. Thats a great job, Jonny. In a fit of the unprofessionalism which seems to have beco