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But the whole reason for coming here was one of high romance, buying a frog eraser in love's memory. My family first visited the house in the summer of 1996. Steve & I had met that spring semester in a writing class, in which we read Mark Twain's jumping-frog story and commiserated happily together on how we could not understand why such a nothing tale became a famous short story. Don't get me wrong — we love Mark Twain, but what a dumb story! So, when my family stopped here on our vacation, we decided not to take time for the tour but just pop into the gift shop. There I saw jumping-frog erasers for a mere 10 cents. I couldn't resist shelling out the dime (or, more accurately, my mom's dime). I carefully scribed a friendly yet crisp little note to Steve, hoping to sound, in Jo's words, "stiff and cool enough" and not at all as if I were flirting with him, just saying how funny these erasers are and how he's the only person I know who'd appreciate one. And I thought, "Oh, gosh, I hope he doesn't think I like him." Steve received the note and eraser and brought them to his best friend for an objective opinion. And Kent said, "She likes you."
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