Free The Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha Page A

all her own, though.”
    Vicky leaned forward and took Ethan’s hands in hers.
    I was like,
Hello, I am still in the room here!
    â€œYou sound like you worry about her.”
    He shook his head. “She worries more about me than I do about her. Funny kid. I don’t think she understands the sheer power she . . . I mean,
everyone
has. How many things it could fix for her.”
    â€œYou mean from
The Rule
?” Vicky offered.
    He looked at her like he was only half listening, then nodded.
    â€œSo. . . Ethan. . . ,” I said, watching Vicky’s hands on his. “That girl on the ride at Happy Planet.
The Rule
says if it happened, she must have wanted it to happen, right?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI don’t get that. You think she wanted to die?”
    â€œCaleb?” Vicky said.
    As far as I was concerned, I wasn’t trying to trip him up. It was just an honest question.
    He made a face. “She crawled out from the harness, didn’t she? Did she understand what would happen? She was eight,not two. She was in a spinning ride going about fifty miles an hour. How could some part of her not?”
    â€œBut why would anyone want to die like that?”
    â€œWho knows? Maybe part of her knew she had something like a brain tumor that hadn’t been discovered yet and she wanted a quick death instead of a slow one. Maybe she was being abused and didn’t want to live at all. Maybe part of her knew the ride was going to collapse the next week and hurt a lot of people and this was the only way to save them. I mean, would you rather believe she died for something or died for nothing?”
    I’d never really thought of it as my choice, but he did sort of make a kind of sense. Didn’t he?
    After a respectful silence, I said, “Ethan, do you know what ‘Vanuatu’ means?”
    â€œNo,” he said. “What?”
    â€œNever mind.”

8
    â€œErica?”
    â€œWho’s calling?”
    â€œCaleb.”
    â€œMr. Caleb Dunne? The quintessential slacker? Has he actually picked up a phone?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œUnprecedented. What’s up?”
    â€œUh . . . you going to the game Saturday?”
    â€œMaybe. It’s a toss-up between that and putting a spike through my head.”
    â€œThen may I suggest that the basketball game would be the slightly better choice?”
    â€œHow so?”
    â€œThere’s popcorn, for instance. And . . . I . . . thought maybe you could come with us.”
    â€œ
Us
?”
    â€œMe and Vicky . . . and Ethan.”
    â€œAha. Now
that
sounds much more fun to watch than somesilly old basketball game. Pay for the popcorn and you can count me in.”
    â€œGood. I think. Pick you up at six?”
    â€œI’ll be waiting, my heart aflutter.”
    â€œUh . . . okay. Bye.”
    I hung up, then rapped the phone against my forehead a few times, trying to imagine that spike through my head. Erica saying yes somehow made our new group date more real. I should have seen it coming, but when I asked Vicky to the game, it was just like the coffee shop—why don’t we ask Ethan along? Right. Why don’t we carry him there? Why don’t we build a little hutch for him, so we can feed him and keep him warm? Isn’t Ethan great? Why can’t you be more like Ethan? Why can’t
everyone
be more like Ethan? That way, whenever I looked at someone, I could see Ethan.
    I felt stupid for hating the guy. I should be angry with Vicky. Unless Ethan was secretly trying to imanifest her away from me. Why not? I thought about using
The Rule
to win her back. I pictured me and Ethan as Voldemort and Harry Potter, squaring off with our wands. Well, Ethan would have a wand. I’d have a spork. And I’m not totally sure which of us would be Voldemort and which Harry Potter.
    After an hour lecture on just how much pressure to put on the brakes, Joey lent me his van, then warned me to keep