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Page 13
I didn’t think you’d all be here today, but now that you are, I’d like to ask you a favor and I hope you’ll say yes.
Walk behind me. Make it so that when I don’t know where to go, I can turn around and you’ll be there pointing the way. And if I fall down, somebody just come pick me up, and don’t make me feel like I failed.
Because I pledge to you that I’m going to try to be a man. I’m going to try as hard as I can. But I’m going to need all the help I can get. I think I can do it. But I can’t do it alone.
I looked out at my whole family, at my new friends, at this whole cobbled-together version of my new and old life. I heard my mother sniffle. Patrice and Archie were both smiling at me. Rabbi Weiner put his arm around my shoulders.
“Amen,” he said, and everyone repeated it.
Amen.
18
THERE’S A lot of other stuff I could tell you—about the Quails losing the championship after all; about Kendra and Lucy getting in a fight when Kendra got the lead in the musical and never talking to each other again; about Angelina and my dad getting married.
I guess I could also tell you about how one night over Thanksgiving break Patrice and I stayed up until midnight playing Scrabble, and after she beat me for the fifth time, I leaned over and kissed her—both lips. And then I did it again.
But really, there’s only one other story I want to tell.
In the spring there was a talent show. And Kendra, of course, worked up a big dance number that everyone went nuts for. But then, right after her song, while she was still onstage, the band started playing a different tune, something slow and sort of mystical. And suddenly Archie wheeled himself out, carrying a microphone.
The audience went berserk, clapping and laughing. Then Archie turned to them and asked them to be quiet. Patrice was sitting a couple of rows ahead of me with her dad, and she turned and looked at me and I smiled.
Then Archie cleared his throat, and he sang the song I had heard on his computer six months before, the song that told Kendra that what he wanted more than anything else in the world was for her to notice him and know his name.
Blushing, Kendra stared out into the audience. We hadn’t said a word to each other since Brett beat me up, but I wondered if she remembered what she had promised me.
When Archie was done singing the song, there was not a sound in the whole auditorium. Everyone was just staring at Kendra and Archie, lit by two spotlights alone on the stage.
Kendra got up and walked over to Archie’s wheel-chair. She smiled.
The crowd whooped and hollered. People started taking pictures with their cell phones.
Kendra kneeled down next to Archie and took his hand. He dropped the microphone and it landed with a thud. He was shaking.
Then Kendra took Archie’s face in her hands, and turned it so he was directly looking at her. And there, in front of that whole room, the most popular and most beautiful girl in Appleton, Indiana, kissed Archie.
(But no matter what he tells you, there was no tongue.)
About the Authors
Jason Robert Brown is the Tony Award–winning lyricist and composer of Parade, The Last 5 Years, and Songs for a New World as well as the musical 13, which he collaborated on with Dan Elish. At his bar mitzvah he sang a song he had written about breaking up with his girlfriend, even though he had not at that time ever had a girlfriend. Jason lives in California with his wife and daughter. You can visit him online at www.jasonrobertbrown.com.
Dan Elish has written television shows, magazine articles, and many books, including THE ATTACK OF THE FROZEN WOODCHUCKS, THE WORLDWIDE DESSERT CONTEST, and BORN TOO SHORT. He also collaborated with Jason Robert Brown on the musical 13. At age 13, he attended his best friend’s bar mitzvah in a pair of ripped-up sneakers. Dan lives with his wife and two children in New York City. You can visit him online at www.danelish.com.
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Also by Dan Elish:
The Attack of the Frozen Woodchucks
Credits
Jacket art front and back © 2008 by CSA Images Inc.
Image by Juan Silva/Getty Images
Jacket design by Carla Weise
Copyright
13. Copyright © 2008 by Jason Robert Brown and Dan Elish. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition May 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-195725-3
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