Paul sounded genuinely pleased at Theo’s progress. “Way to go, Gee! Hey, want to go to the park with me tomorrow and play some ball? There’ll be a bunch of guys there.”
Theo hesitated, out of old habit, but then said, “Sure, why not? Sounds good. I’ll come by your place. Tell your dad thanks again for me.”
“Right! Oh, how’s your aunt doing?” Paul asked. “Any better?”
Thinking of Marj, Theo felt his mood darken. “Well, maybe a little. She’s still pretty weak. But it’s going to take time, you know.”
“Sure,” Paul said, quickly. “But I bet she’s going to be better soon. I bet she’ll be able to come and watch you in that race.”
“Wouldn’t that be amazing?” Theo fell silent, thinking about that possibility. It might happen. There was no way to know for sure. “Well, anyway, see you tomorrow.”
“Bye, Gee!”
Theo hung up the phone and closed his eyes, imagining himself running in a real race, with his parents and Marj cheering him on from the sideline. It was a very nice dream. Maybe this dream might even come true.
The next day, Theo biked over to Paul’s, and the two boys rode to the park. Theo was still excited about what he’d done the day before.
In the midst of talking about what he was going to do at the track in the coming week, Theo stopped and looked at Paul.
“What are you smiling at?”
Paul shrugged. “Oh, nothing. It’s just that, up until a week ago, I’d have had to drag you out onto a track. The only action you liked was what you saw on a video screen. And now… well, it’s a huge change, that’s all.”
Theo nodded. “Yeah, I guess it seems pretty funny. But it’s for real! And I owe it all to you. If you hadn’t pushed me into trying it out, I might never have done it.”
They had arrived at the ball field, where they got off their bikes and locked them. Some other boys were already at the field. Paul and Theo waved to them as they walked over.
“Anyway,” Theo said as they walked, “I think maybe I’ll be able to run the full ten minutes without stopping by the end of this week. Maybe we can work out together once or twice.”
“Sounds cool, Gee,” Paul said.
“Did I hear something about working out?” asked Van Sluman, one of the other boys waiting to play. Van was a wiry, freckle-faced redhead who seemed to enjoy making fun of Theo more than anyone else. He’d been one of the boys who had ragged him when Theo hadn’t been able to run a full lap on the school track.
Theo didn’t say anything to Van, but Paul did. “Yeah, Theo’s started doing some running. He’s going to get into shape.”
Van laughed and looked at the other grinning boys. “Get into shape? Him? What shape is he going to get into? A big, round ball?”
“Real funny, Sluman,” Paul snapped.
Theo flushed, wishing Paul had kept his mouth shut.
Van turned to the rest of the group. “Hear that, guys? Theo’s working out. He’s going to be a runner.” He turned back to Theo, sneering. “How far you going to run, big boy? Down to the candy store and back?”
Stung by the laughter, Theo couldn’t stop himself. “I’m going to run in a race in a few months. A five-K race.”
Van rolled his eyes in a look of comic disbelief. “Five K? You’re going to run five K? Yeah, right!”
“That’s more than three miles!” said one of the other kids. “They won’t need a stopwatch to time you. They’ll need a calendar!”
“He’s going to do it,” said Paul, standing up for his friend. “You’ll see. He’s already doing a lot better than he used to.”
“Uh-huh,” Van said. “A lot better. Like, he can make a hundred yards now without fainting?”
Theo swallowed and said, “I’m going to do it. I will.”
Van stared hard at Theo. “Tell you what, Gordo. If you run a whole five-K race, I’ll push a peanut all the way down Main Street with my nose. On my hands and knees.”
Paul put a hand on Theo’s shoulder. “You better start practicing with a peanut, Sluman, because he’s going to run that race. And I’m going to make sure you do what you said you’d do.”
Theo, who only a few minutes ago had felt really confident in himself, suddenly wasn’t sure at all. He was back to the old Theo, wishing he hadn’t gotten involved in this running stuff, doubting that he had what it took. Van was right about him, there was no way in the world he could run that far. He stood silent and miserable until Van and his buddies got bored with picking on him and chose up sides for the softball game.
As usual, Theo was the last one picked.
As his team went out to start the game — Theo was put in right field, where he’d do the least damage — Paul whispered to him, “Don’t let that guy bother you. You can do it, and you’re going to make him look like a total jerk.”
Theo nodded and trotted to a corner of the outfield, where he stood hoping that nothing would be hit in his direction. As the game began, Theo couldn’t focus on what was going on in the field. He kept thinking about what the other boys thought of him, and that they were probably right. He was what he was, and that was that.
“Hey, Gordimer! You sleeping out there?” The yell from a teammate jolted Theo out of his daydream to notice that a ball had been hit in his direction and rolled right by him. He ran after it and threw it back to the infield, but not before the hitter had made it all the way to third base.
“Yo, Gordo, if you want to take a nap, find a bed somewhere!” yelled a second teammate. Theo looked at his feet and said nothing.
The rest of the game wasn’t much better, although Theo managed not to get so distracted again. But he misplayed a couple of fly balls that he should have caught easily. When his team was at bat, he did no better. With runners at first and third and one out, Theo hit a little bouncer to shortstop that resulted in a double play to end one inning. The ground ball had been hit so slowly that only the lead-footed Theo could not have beaten out the throw to first. In another at bat, he actually struck out, something that almost never happened in the kind of slow pitch softball they played.
Even by Theo’s normal standards, he played terribly. After a while, he was able to tune out all the nasty remarks of the other guys. Only Paul refused to join in the fun of teasing Theo, but after a while even Paul stopped defending him. Finally, after what seemed like many hours, the game ended.
As Theo and Paul trudged back to their bikes, Theo was too depressed to talk. Paul finally said, “You shouldn’t let that kind of stuff get to you the way it does. That only makes a guy like Van keep going.”
“What am I supposed to do? Get into a fight with him?” Theo demanded. “What do you mean, ‘shouldn’t let that kind of stuff get to me’?”
Paul bent down to unlock his bike. “Of course you shouldn’t fight him. Just prove that he’s wrong. Show him up.”
Theo stood up from removing the chain from his bike. “How am I supposed to prove that he’s wrong if he happens to be right? Because he is. I’m not an athlete, and I was dumb to pretend that I was one! Now, if I don’t do this race, they’ll be on my back forever about it. I should have just…” He didn’t finish the sentence.
Paul waited a moment as they pedaled toward home. “You should have just what? You saying you’re sorry you started running?!”
“I don’t know!” Theo burst out. “I don’t know what I should do.”
“Then I’ll tell you,” said Paul. “You should keep it up. Then, when you run that race, they’re going to look dumb.… And I’m going to make sure that Van pushes that peanut!”
“But I don’t think I can!” Theo insisted.
Paul waved a hand in disgust. “Because Van says so? You’re going to let Van Sluman decide what you can and can’t do? Tell me, yes or no: did you make real progress this week?”
“Well, sure,” admitted Theo. “But —”
“No buts. You got better. You can keep getting better, too — unless you quit.”
&
nbsp; “Sure, I ran half a mile,” Theo said. “That’s a long way from five kilometers.”
“When you think of that day in gym class, running half a mile is a big step in the right direction,” Paul said. “But you can’t get discouraged — especially not because of some dumb teasing. You owe it to your aunt Marj to keep going. And you owe it to yourself, too. You get down on yourself way too easily. Some guy says you’re an awful athlete and you go, ‘Oh, okay, I guess I am.’ No! What you do is, you say, ‘Oh, yeah? I’ll show you you’re wrong!’ You think Van Sluman is a better athlete than you are? He’s just more self-confident, period.”
Theo shook his head. “I don’t know.…”
“I know,” insisted Paul. “Listen, Gee, don’t let what happened today turn you around. You have to use it to give you another reason to keep working. If you need something else to think about while you work out, think of Van Sluman pushing that peanut down Main Street. On a hot summer day. While you watch.”
Theo laughed. “Yeah, I’d love to see that. Okay, you’re right. I’ll keep going. I’ll be out here in the park tomorrow.”
“And the next day…,” Paul said.
“And the day after that,” Theo went on.
“All right!” Paul said, reaching out a clenched fist. “Want some company tomorrow?”
Theo smiled. “Absolutely.”
6
I’m really going to push myself today,” said Theo. He and Paul were doing their warm-up stretches, before beginning their workout. It was the morning after the disastrous softball game.
“What do you mean, ‘push yourself’?” asked Paul. “You’ve already been pushing yourself, you know. You don’t want to push yourself too hard, especially today. It’s really hot, in case you didn’t notice.”
Theo did notice. Even though it was still pretty early, the thermometer outside the Gordimers’ kitchen window had read close to ninety degrees when Theo and Paul had left for the park. It would certainly become hotter during the next hour or so.
“I think I can put more energy into these workouts,” Theo said. “I only had to stop once during the running part of my last session. Well, I think I can make it through without stopping at all, if I just refuse to quit. Anyway, that’s what I want to do today.”
Paul looked unconvinced. “Yesterday, you said that would be your goal for the end of the week. Now you want to do it today. I think you should think again, maybe take it a little easier. Especially in this heat. You could —”
But Theo wasn’t ready to listen. “I’ve been taking it too easy on myself all my life. That’s going to stop. Today. I can do it, I know I can.”
“You can get heat exhaustion, too,” Paul pointed out. “Dad told me what can happen when you make yourself work too hard in really hot weather. It sounds pretty awful. You get weak and dizzy and you can just collapse. This is the first really hot day since you started running. I think it’d be a good idea to work up to it little by little, like you planned to at first.
“Dad says that if you set your goals so high that you can’t make them, you just risk getting hurt. The least that’ll happen is that you’ll be discouraged. If I were you, I’d go a little easy today. If it was cooler, it might make more sense to push like that.”
Theo shook his head. “Uh-uh, today I’m going to walk ten minutes, run ten minutes, and then walk ten minutes. That’s it. See, you don’t get it, Paul. You’re a good athlete. You always have been. Someone like me, who never was any good at sports, I have to work harder at it if I’m going to get anywhere. That’s what I have to do, so that’s what I’m going to do. All right?”
Paul didn’t look like he was convinced, but he saw that Theo was not going to change his mind. “All right,” he said. “Let’s go.”
As they started walking, Paul let Theo set the pace, which was fast — faster than Theo had been walking. Even Paul, who was a better natural athlete, thought that this was a high speed to begin a workout on a hot day, but he said nothing, not wanting to get into an argument with his friend.
Suddenly, Paul looked at Theo and said, “Yo, Gee, didn’t you bring anything to drink?”
Theo realized that he’d forgotten the bottle of sports drink that he usually brought with him and kept in a little canvas bag on a belt. “That’s all right,” he said, not wanting to stop the session. “I’ll be okay without it.”
“It’s a bad idea not to drink anything when you work out on a hot day,” said Paul. “Look, we can just start again after you get that bottle.”
Theo shook his head. “Next time, I’ll remember to bring it with me. This time, I’m going to manage without it. I have to toughen up, right? Well, doing without a drink for a half hour is going to help me toughen up. Those guys aren’t going to get on my case anymore. Come on!”
So they walked on. Every so often, Paul cast worried glances at Theo. As the walk continued, Theo realized that he had begun to sweat heavily, more so than he usually did at this early stage of a workout. Also, his face felt hot. Well, of course he felt hot, and he was sweating. It was a hot day. It figured that he’d sweat. Good, he’d lose more weight.
“Gee? Yo, Gee! You want a drink?” Theo turned to find Paul holding out a bottle toward him.
Theo shook his head. “No, I’m okay. I don’t need it.” He kept walking, staring at the path in front of him. Unlike other days when he and Paul were together, Theo didn’t feel at all like talking. He realized that he was beginning to breathe harder than he usually did. Well, that was to be expected. It was getting hotter.
Theo had lost all sense of passing time when he heard Paul’s watch beep. Ten minutes had gone by, and it was time to start running.
“Here we go,” Theo said, trying not to show that he was beginning to pant, and broke into a run. Paul stood motionless, watching him, and then ran to catch up. Theo felt his friend’s eyes on him and knew that Paul was getting more and more concerned.
“Listen, Theo, you better slow down and take a drink,” Paul said at last.
Theo didn’t say anything but waved off Paul’s bottle and kept running. His face now felt like it was on fire, and his mouth was very dry. He had no idea how long they’d been running, or how fast they were going. He just knew that he was going to keep running, that he had to keep running until he heard Paul’s watch beep again and he could finally slow down.
Except he had slowed down… hadn’t he? It was hard to tell. It was so hot, and his mouth was so dry, and he thought he heard Paul calling his name but it sounded very far away, as if Paul were miles and miles away.…
“Gee? Gee! Hey man, do you hear me?”
Theo blinked. For a moment he didn’t know where he was. Only that he felt really awful — sick, hot, and very, very thirsty.
Then he realized that he was lying facedown on the ground.
“Gee?” Paul said, kneeling next to Theo. “Talk to me, dude!”
“Umph,” Theo said obediently. He tried to move but found that it was hard to do.
Finally, with Paul’s help, Theo was able to turn over and get into a sitting position. Paul spilled a little of the liquid from his bottle onto a handkerchief and put it on Theo’s forehead. It felt wonderful. He put the bottle in Theo’s hand.
“Take a drink. Just a sip. Do it!”
Theo nodded and swallowed a little of the sports drink. He’d never tasted anything better in his whole life and wanted to gulp it all down, but Paul pulled the bottle away.
“A little at a time,” he said. “Now, take a little more, then just rest for a bit.”
After another drink, Theo looked around. They were in a wooded part of the park, and there was nobody else around. Theo sat there, not saying anything, just breathing slowly and trying to clear his head.
A few minutes later, Theo said, “I’m feeling a little better, I think.”
“Good,” said Paul. “Think you can stand up if I give you a hand?”
“I guess,” Theo replied. Slowly, with Paul’s help, Theo ma
naged to get to his feet. He swayed a little but stayed upright.
“Wow,” he whispered, blinking. “That was… wow. What happened?”
Paul said, “You were running, sort of. I mean, your arms and legs were moving, but not, like, together. Then you folded. It was like your legs turned into cooked spaghetti. You went down and stayed down. Man, I was scared!”
“But why?” Theo asked.
“It must have been the heat. Plus, you wouldn’t take a drink. Call it heat exhaustion or dehydration or both. And you passed out.”
Theo licked his lips. “Could I have a little more to drink?”
Paul handed him the bottle. “Take it easy. Just a little, or you could get sick.”
Theo drank slowly. He still felt rubbery, but he was beginning to recover.
“There’s a bench over there,” Paul said, pointing. The bench was under a tree, fifty yards away. “Think you can get there and sit down?”
Theo stared at the bench. It seemed very far away. “Yeah, I think. Let’s go.”
After what seemed like an endless walk, they got to the bench. Theo sat down heavily and closed his eyes. Paul sat next to him.
“Thanks,” Theo said after a few minutes. “You didn’t say, ‘I told you so.’”
Paul shrugged. “I figured you didn’t need me to tell you. I bet you don’t forget to bring liquid along again. And that you won’t push too hard — especially on a hot day.”
Theo laughed weakly. “You win both bets. I was really dumb.”
“I won’t argue,” Paul agreed. “Listen, when you think you’re ready, we’ll walk back to where we left our bikes. Then we can call and get a lift from there. I think you’re better off not trying to ride home.”
Theo frowned. “I was sort of hoping not to tell my parents about this. They’d only get worried and upset.”
“You sure about that?” Paul asked. “You didn’t do anything that was so terrible. You just made a mistake, and it looks like you’ll be all right, so why hide it? Then, if they ever do find out, it’ll look even worse. I’d call them for a ride, and I’d tell them what happened and that you learned an important lesson.”
Run For It Page 3