by Chris Lynch
“You should not be over there fighting. You should be up there, on Apollo missions to the moon.”
I came very close to pointing out that all those astronauts started out just where I was starting out. But my mother has sharp debating skills and I didn’t want to hear about how the Vietnam War was not the Korean War. The quickest way to get killed would probably be to doubt your mission before you start it.
Instead, I went for optimism, and my University of Wisconsin–Madison scholarship which was being held for me while I served.
“Madison will still be there when I come back, Ma,” I said.
Which did not turn out to be the comfort I had intended, since it hinted at things being or not being, people coming back or not. Which set off all kinds of everything.
That is how I still see her all the time. Frozen there, wheezing, weeping, her fears spilling onto my rug, her finger pointing to her hopes in the sky.
Chris Lynch is the author of numerous acclaimed books for middle-grade and teen readers, including the Cyberia series and the National Book Award finalist Inexcusable. He teaches in the Lesley University creative writing MFA program, and divides his time between Massachusetts and Scotland.
Copyright © 2012 by Chris Lynch
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available
First edition, November 2012
Jacket art 2012 by Tim Bradstreet
Jacket design by Christopher Stengel
e-ISBN: 978-0-545-47005-6
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