The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher

she misses Eddie’s message. “I feel so bad for what you’ve been through,” she says, “that I don’t know how I could fight against you. I hope that doesn’thappen, because I have to defend this book, and all books, like a warrior. I have to, Eddie. If you’re on the other side, please know I’m just fighting for an idea, I’m not fighting against you, okay?”
    Eddie stands and smiles even bigger. If he doesn’t reel it in, his face is going to break. He places one hand on her shoulder as he reaches into his backpack and extracts the book. He pats it against his heart three times and holds it there. He says, “All done,” and hands it to her.
    Ms. Lloyd is dumbfounded a second, startled at the sound of Eddie’s voice; but when she starts to speak, he puts his finger to his lips and shushes her. He winks and leaves.
    In the hall Dan Moeltke catches up with him. “Hey, big guy. The school board meeting for the challenge on Warren Peece is coming up. You ready? Mr. Tarter is worried you may not start talking soon enough to help us. We need you, man. People will see you making connections again; they’ll knowyou’re coming back. Everyone is rooting for you, Eddie. This is the perfect time for you to speak out. You have a chance to make an impact.”
    Eddie grins. He’ll be there. He’ll be talking.
    I butt out on Eddie’s run this afternoon because I sense he wants to be alone. Actually I don’t sense it, he thinks it, which in our relationship is like talking. He truly has the power to let me in or out, and he’s beginning to recognize how that works. If I were alive, I’d be offended when he doesn’t want to see me, because I could be a needy little bugger back then, but a good dose of death takes being offended away. It’s really very nice being dead.
    But I don’t have to bump him to glide along and know everything he thinks: Man, why do they want to control your head? Jesus would of finished that book. He would of taken Chris Crutcher out for a McWine and McBread lunch after he read it, too. He would of underlined all the good parts and read ’em to his friends out in some corner of the playground.Jesus was a tough guy. Didn’t those guys READ those Bible lessons? Jesus wouldn’t stop you from reading stuff; he’d talk to you after you did.
    Eddie’s legs pump hard as he moves into a slight hill, and he feels stronger with every stride. From now on, nobody takes nothin ’ from me. I’ll read every book they try to get and buy every rap CD they put on their stupid little list. I might run Warren Peece for student body president.
    The slap of his running shoes on the pavement quickens as he hardens his resolve. As always, the more stress on his body the clearer his thoughts. If Coach were smart he’d give Eddie a really hard math problem right before every race and offer him a Dixie Chicks CD if he could solve it by the end of the race. Eddie would be a world-record holder. Man, this story is going to have a great ending, even if everybody dies.
    I know the deep reason Eddie struggles with the loss of Warren Peece and his fictional friends, and hedoes, too, though he doesn’t know he knows it. He’ll figure it out, though. It’s because, even though they have really hard lives, harder than Eddie could imagine (at least before this year), they don’t go away. He let himself fall in love with the characters in a book because they were safe. He knew they wouldn’t die in the end because, for one thing, the story was being told by one of them. It seems as if everything he has allowed himself to love in this last year has been taken. And even though my reappearance has eased that a little, they ain’t gettin’ any more.

13
S OMETHING ABOUT THE A UTHOR
    I ’m sitting on top of the furnace, which I don’t recommend for living people, watching my dad read