Erik vs. Everything
Page 16
Forty-five minutes later, the weekly lesson was over. It is safe to say that not everyone would describe the lesson as fun. However, it is also safe to say that fun was, most assuredly, had. Brunhilde gripped Mrs. Loathcraft’s hand in both of hers before heading out.
“See you next week, teacher,” she said.
* * *
The first day of fall, Spjut the terrier was waiting patiently when the school bus pulled up from Ridgewell Lower Middle School. He sniffed each child as they disembarked and gave most of them a tail wag. Erik was the last one off, running immediately for his yard, Spjut at his heels. The front door banged shut behind them. Erik headed up the stairs. The dog followed, his tiny toenails clicking on the wooden stair risers. He arrived in time to see Erik slide under his bed as usual.
Spjut turned in a circle three times on Erik’s braided rug, about to settle in for his afternoon nap, but startled into full wakefulness when Erik slithered back out from under the bed, pulling his new bike helmet with him.
“Want to come along, Spjut?” Erik asked him. “We’re meeting today over at the Peaked Mountain trailhead. You have to promise not to bark at any of the bikes, though, okay?”
Spjut’s tongue dangled in cheerful anticipation. He had heard the words bark and bikes. Sounded like his kind of afternoon.
He followed Erik to the garage, where the boy rolled out his secondhand mountain bike. It was not as nice as the bike he’d used this summer, but it would do. He couldn’t beat the price, that was for sure. Every hour he put in cleaning up at the local bike shop was put toward the value of the bike. Once he’d worked one hundred hours, the bike would be his.
The day after he’d learned he didn’t have to take any more piano lessons, Erik had summoned up that solid thing in his guts and asked the school secretary for a list of the after-school groups that involved bicycles. Two were listed: the Ridgewell RaceWell Cyclonauts and the Ridgewell RideWell Mountain Bike Club. Erik knew he didn’t want anything to do with racing, so he’d gone to the first meeting of the RideWell Mountain Bike Club in the grease-scented back room of the bike shop. Jorge, a high school senior, was the club leader.
“Welcome, bikers,” Jorge said. “First off, I want you to know this is a club, not a team, and we don’t race like the maniacs over in the Cyclonauts do. If competition’s your thing, you are in the wrong place, so feel free to leave if you want, no hard feelings.” He gazed around the room. No one got up to leave. “Fine and dandy, guess we’re here all here to learn some skills and enjoy the outdoors. Now, anyone here done this before?”
A few other kids raised their hands. Erik started doing Dragon Breathing to keep from hiding under the workbench or snack table and raised one finger.
Jorge said, “Right. Let’s pretend we’re all beginners and start with some basics. If you didn’t bring your own bike, grab one that fits you off that rack over there, and let’s head outside.”
The group started off by reviewing some safety pointers and then did a very short ride down the block and around an empty soccer field. Erik didn’t say a word, rode at the back, and tried to stay out of the way. He did the same at the next meeting, and the next. But he kept showing up. His riding skills still weren’t much to speak of, but he did brilliant tuck-and-rolls whenever he fell off his bike. After a few rides together, the other members of club voted unanimously to nickname Erik “the Walnut” for his well-protected biking style. He liked it.
He and Spjut pedaled up for the day’s ride with his fellow RideWell club members. He hadn’t told his family about the club yet. He wanted to be sure Brunhilde and Allyson wouldn’t decide to “help” him with his practices and his mother wouldn’t decide that if joining one bicycling club was good, joining two, or three, or five would be even better. The Walnut was going to keep this one under his shell for as long as he could.
Maybe, once he’d gone on a few more rides with the club, he’d tell his sisters about it, if they wanted to know what he was up to. Maybe he’d even invite them to come try riding with him. He pictured Allyson giggling on a pink bike and sailing over giant boulders, and Brunhilde encouraging everyone to learn an Old Norse battle cry, waving her CONQUEST rune at the head of the pack. Maybe his mom and dad would even want to come along on a couple of their horses. At the end, maybe they could ride somewhere together for pie and talk about Sheepflattener family victories.
Erik pulled down his sleeves to cover the symbols he’d scrawled on his own forearms that morning. The right one said AVOID MOST STUFF. The left one was the Sheepflattener family crest. He was still pretty sure his family didn’t know the meaning of the word fear. Or the word no—at least when he said it. But he thought they all might agree on the meaning of the word family.
“Hey, Walnut, you coming? Time to head out,” called Jorge as he led the pack into the woods.
“Coming!” Erik brought up the rear. Behind and above him, leaves shook in the canopy of the oak trees. One tiny, tattered squirrel ear had swiveled toward the bikers at the mention of the word Walnut. Now the squirrel was following the group, making sure not to be seen while leaping from branching to branch, keeping Erik in his line of sight.
Luckily, Erik was too caught up in pedaling to notice. For now, there were mountains to be biked.
THE END
Erik vs. Everything: Sources for Quotations
It turns out that bits of the Sheepflattener Lore as well as some of Erik’s screams and Brunhilde’s advice come from a variety of books and famous people. The Sheepflatteners and I are indebted to the following:
“One must howl with the wolves one is among” is a proverb that has been translated from the Danish a few different ways, but this one is my favorite. You’ll find it and others at the Viking Rune website (www.vikingrune.com/2012/12/norse-proverbs-and-sayings). “That which is hidden in the snow turns up in the thaw” is a proverb that can be found in The Neighbours, A Story of Everyday Life, by Frederika Bremer; translated from the Swedish by Mary Howitt. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1852.
Whenever Erik’s screams are one hundred letters long or more, he’s unconsciously quoting made-up words from author James Joyce’s book Finnegan’s Wake.
Chapter Nine’s breathing instructions are based on the teachings of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. He’s written many books about meditation and mindfulness; A Handful of Quiet: Happiness in Four Pebbles is a great one for kids.
Frank Herbert’s book Dune inspired the cheer beginning “We will face our fear.” The real quote is “I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Brunhilde really likes Winston Churchill’s speeches. Her encouragement to the cyclists to “never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never” is something Churchill said in 1941, and her speech beginning “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end . . .” is a mutilated version of a famous speech Churchill gave to Parliament in 1940. She’s also fond of Shakespeare. When she says, “Lend me your ears,” and then later shouts, “. . . cry havoc! And let slip the bikes of war,” she’s quoting from his play Julius Caesar (although in his version, it’s “the dogs of war”).
All quotes from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War come from the beautifully illustrated 2016 edition of this work published by Arcturus Publishing Limited, London, which uses the Samuel Griffith translation.
“A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it” was said by a character in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, a collection of stories by J.R.R. Tolkien never completed during his lifetime, but edited and published by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1980.
An Anxious Author’s Note
As the veteran of one tour of an anxious childhood, I know that fears, anxieties, and phobias are no joke. The problems against which Erik battles are real for many children and adults. The good news is that there is h
elp even for those of us without Viking families.
If you have trouble with worries or anxiety, please take the first step of talking to a teacher, counselor, friend, or family member about what is going on. Many useful treatments offer proven ways to help train your body and mind to calm down, including relaxation techniques like deep breathing, meditation, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. (I can assure you that absolutely no one recommends being locked in a cage with a ringing phone and a squirrel.)
Lots of doctors and therapists understand what you are going through, not to mention many other grownups like me. You are not alone. As Brunhilde would say, “We will always be on your side and vanquish that which would trouble you.”
Acknowledgments
May the old gods shower countless blessings upon the following people who helped me with Erik’s story and beyond:
My team at HMH and my lovely editor, Lily Kessinger, who understood right off the bat that Erik was ME and pointed out the weird things that made her laugh.
My agent, Ammi-Joan Paquette, and the gang of talented, generous, and kind people who make up the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.
My family, who are always on my side and would vanquish that which would trouble me. Jack and Susannah, thanks for treating Brunhilde and the crew like they’re our actual relatives. Also, my parents deserve special thanks for letting me say NO to many, many things when I was young so I could simply stay in my room and read.
My friends, who remind me of the things to which I enjoy saying YES, like all-day breakfast restaurants.
My home libraries of East Longmeadow and Longmeadow, and all the wonderful libraries and classrooms around the country that have invited me to visit and connect with readers.
I’m so grateful that you are the wolves among whom I get to howl, the warrior figurines surrounding my walnut, the butter and salt on the popcorn of my life.
Visit hmhbooks.com to find all of the books in the Vanderbeekers series.
About the Author
Photo courtesy of the author
CHRISTINA USS is scared of a lot of things, but still believes the world is full of nice surprises. Her first novel, The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle, was selected for the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List, the Maine Student Book Award list, and Vermont’s Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award list, and was a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year. Christina lives with her family, her cats, and a scurry of backyard squirrels in Massachusetts.
Visit her online at christinauss.com/index.html
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