Free The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher

powerful presence than to the YFC’s bigotry. Most of them will mature and realize the foolishnessof such a notion, and frankly, it doesn’t affect them directly in the moment. Such is the nature of many humans. It is not the nature of Eddie Proffit.
    The rest of the lessons go down easily, mostly because Eddie doesn’t take them seriously. He doesn’t openly question their veracity, only makes sure he remembers the “facts” for his written work. At the end of the session, which includes obligations toward the church in terms of tithing and work hours, Tarter says, “Edward, I’d like you to stay a few minutes after class tonight, if that’s possible.”
    When the others are gone, Tarter motions for Eddie to take a seat, which he does. “Edward, I want to push your testimony and baptism forward, if we can. I think, because of all you’ve been through, that you can be a major force in a project we’re taking on at the high school. I’d like you to be a full member of Youth for Christ within the next two weeks. To make that happen, I’ll need to tutor you and you’ll need to start talking again.”
    Eddie looks directly at Tarter. His expression says he’ll consider it. My man is getting so good at lying through his eyes. Tarter is unaware that Eddie is ahead of him on the Warren Peece issue, and even though Eddie’s name and “trouble” usually appear back-to-back in Tarter’s brain, he believes Eddie’s fear is still driving him. Even in death, I’m an unknown quantity.
    â€œVery well then,” Tarter says. “You’ll know more when you need to. I’ve asked a couple of members of Youth for Christ to contact you. I’ll be doing more work with your mother, and I’ll coordinate that with your accelerated mentoring.” His expression softens. “I know things have been tough for you, Eddie. We’ll get through all this. I won’t abandon you.”
    Â 
    I catch up with Eddie on an after-school run. Mr. Pederson, the cross-country coach, hands out workout sheets and mileage charts on the first day ofpractice and lets the runners choose routes from those posted. Each runner has the choice of three or four different routes per day. Eddie runs alone two days a week, and with the majority of his teammates on others. Today is a solitary run. On these days, depending on how he’s feeling, he may run a given course two or three times. The farther he goes, the deeper he gets into himself and the calmer he feels. He will definitely be one of the three top runners as a freshman. The two of us would have been hard to beat.
    â€œHey,” he says to me before I make any spiritual noise .
    â€œHey,” I say back .
    â€œIs this really you?”
    â€œWhat does it matter?”
    â€œThat’s right,” he says. “I remember you from my dream. You think you’re Alex Trebek. All your answers come in the form of questions. You can be as annoying dead as you were alive.
    â€œYour dad was right,” he says. “It was smart to stay in Tarter’s baptism class. Bet you anything I’m gonna get an earful of this book thing when he comes over tonight. It has to be him behind this. Maxwell West is a big-time guy in the church. No way he does anything without Tarter knowing. He passes the collection plate and hands out the grape juice and that funny bread for Communion. This is Tarter’s skullduggery for sure. I like that word. Skullduggery.”
    As Eddie starts into a long hill, he picks up his pace. I could never figure out how he did that when we ran together. Eddie kills guys on hills. It’s easy for me now, though. I just float. “Montana’s the cool one. She’s so hacked off. I’d love to be at their house when this all gets out in the open. There’s gonna be parent-child conflict.”
    No argument there.
    â€œBet she’s giving her dad a