Whale Talk
Page 20
Some positive things have come of all this. Alicia and Heidi and Things One and Two are permanent at our place now, and I think Alicia has some sense of what it means to step up, even if she discovered it late. Mom invited Icko to build living quarters on the edge of our property, and he’s going to be a kind of caretaker for the place and live there free. He and his son are player/coaches for the South Park Mermen this summer, a slow-pitch softball team that travels around eastern Washington and northern Idaho losing softball games with astonishing regularity. Tay-Roy and Mott have gone their ways, but the heart of the team is a ghost of a shortstop, the world’s largest first baseman, and a right fielder in a Cutter letter jacket that he removes only when he feels faint from the heat. Dan Hole keeps their stats.
Mike Barbour approached me at the funeral and shook my hand. He said, “I didn’t know, man. I didn’t.” He was popping out of his suit, looked horribly uncomfortable, tears welling in his red-rimmed eyes. “Part of this is mine,” he said. “I ain’t askin’ you to forgive me. I just want you to know I know that.” Little acts of heroism.
Tonight, after Alicia and the kids are in bed, Mom and I put the whale tape into the VCR, turn up the sound, and sit in the porch swing listening, staring at the carpet of stars.
“God, Mom,” I say. “Sometimes there’s just no place to put this.”
“Well,” she says, “if there’s no place to put it, maybe we don’t need to put it anywhere.”
About the Author
CHRIS CRUTCHER has written nine critically acclaimed novels, an autobiography, and two collections of short stories. He has won three lifetime achievement awards for the body of his work: the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Outstanding Literature for Young Adults, the ALAN Award for a Significant Contribution to Adolescent Literature, and the NCTE National Intellectual Freedom Award.
He has been a child and family therapist with the Spokane Community Mental Health Center and is currently chairperson of the Spokane Child Protection Team. Chris Crutcher lives in Spokane, Washington.
www.chriscrutcher.com
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PRAISE FOR Whale Talk
“An unusual yet resonant mixture of black comedy and tragedy that lays bare the superficiality of the high school scene.”
—Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)
“Crutcher’s superior gifts as a storyteller and his background as a working therapist combine to make magic in Whale Talk.”
—Washington Post
“Crutcher is at his darkest but also his funniest here, and the book conveys his most timely message—forgiveness, not revenge.”
—VOYA
“T. J. himself is witty, self-assured, fearless, intelligent, and wise beyond his years.”
—School Library Journal
“A compulsively readable story.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Highly entertaining…. Readers will have a hard time resisting the charm.”
—Houston Chronicle
“This book should be required reading for every freak, geek, and jock living the American dream/nightmare of high school.”
—Collette Morgan, Wild Rumpus Books
HONORS AND AWARDS FOR Whale Talk
One of the ALA’s Top Five Most Challenged Books in 2005
A Publishers Weekly Best Book
An ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults
An ALA Popular Paperback for Young Adults
A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
A Teenreads.com Best Book
A Texas Library Association Tayshas High School
Reading List Selection
Winner of the Washington State Book Award
Credits
Cover photograph © 2009 by Ali Smith
Cover design by Hilary Zarycky
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
WHALE TALK. Copyright © 2001 by Chris Crutcher. 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 August 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-196853-2
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Whale Talk
About the Author
Praise
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher