Free Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters Page A

then, anyhow."
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    "What did you think about Tommy joining the team?" "I can't lie," he said. "I wasn't really happy about it. I don't think it was the right thing to do. I still don't." "Why?"
    "Because," and again Pete chose his words carefully, "because he couldn't play. I didn't think it was fair. Kids work really hard to get some playing time and qualify for the team, and this guy gets to play just because he's dead? Just because the school wants to prove how liberal and politically correct they are? It wasn't right."
    "So you're saying Tommy was given playing time just because he was differently biotic?"
    "Of course," Tommy said. "He couldn't move, he couldn't run. Last one around the track every single time. No disrespect intended, kids who can't play shouldn't be allowed to suit up. It isn't right."
    "Do lots of kids get cut from the team?"
    He knew by the way she asked the question that she already knew the answer.
    "No. Not really."
    "The one game he played," she said, "did he play much of the game?"
    "It's the principle," he said. "If you can't play, you shouldn't be allowed to play." "So it made you angry."
    "Sure I was angry," he said. "But he only played the one game, so I let it go."
    "Why do you think you were so angry?"
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    "Because it wasn't right." "What wasn't right?"
    He considered throwing it out on the table. It wasn't right that the dead could pretend they were alive. It wasn't right that Julie was dead and Tommy was not completely dead. It wasn't right that little Miss Scarypants would choose a worm burger over him. None of it was right.
    But what he said was just a reiteration of what he'd said before. "Like I said. It wasn't right that he got to play while a more deserving kid had to sit on the bench. People work too hard for that playing time."
    "Like you."
    "Yes, like me. I busted my ass to make sure I would be on the field for game day."
    "You've worked hard today, too," Angela said. "I think this was a good start. Let's go out into the office and I'll call Mr. Davidson so you can start on the community service portion of your sentencing. Wait here a moment."
    Pete watched her leave the office, wondering how he was supposed to be able to survive another twenty-three weeks of this. He heard Angela's voice over the intercom asking for Mr. Davidson. He looked around the office--shelves of books, the two chairs, a low table with a pitcher of water and two cups. A print on the wall of a New England coastline, a ship in the distance.
    She returned with a tall man who had a bald, lozenge-shaped head. The man looked down at Pete in his chair with all the expression and warmth of the living dead. He was wearing
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    a blue windbreaker with the Hunter Foundation insignia on it, and he wore a belt which had a Nextel clipped on the left hip and a handgun clipped on the right.
    "Pete," Angela said, "this is Duke Davidson, the Director of Operations here at the foundation. He will be responsible for overseeing your community service hours."
    Pete wasn't sure if he was supposed to get up and shake his hand, but Davidson's narrowed stare kept him in his seat. It seemed like the tall man was licking his lips at the prospect of putting him to work.
    Pete considered making a crack about the handgun, but in light of his reasons for being there, it didn't seem well-advised.
    "Hi," Pete said, and he said it in a way that he hoped conveyed that he didn't intend to be any trouble.
    "Two hundred hours," Davidson said. "The clock starts now."
    "I'll see you next week, Pete," Angela told him as he followed Davidson out of her office. "Thanks," he mumbled.
    "The term 'Operations' has a broad context here at the Hunter Foundation," Davidson said, his long strides echoing in heavy, booted footfalls that resounded off the shiny tiled floors and concrete corridors. Davidson liked people to know he was coming, it seemed. "It means security. It means care and maintenance of the physical plant. It means utilities, it means