bridge to terabithia written by katherine patterson illustrated by donna diamond chapter one jessie oliver aaron's junior boom boom boom boom boom boom booty very pretty good his dad had the pickup going he could get up now jess lit out of bed and into his overalls he didn't worry about his shirt because once he began running he would be hot as popping grease even if the morning air was chill or shoes because the bottom of his feet were not bright now as tough as his worn out sneakers where are you going jess meebel lifted herself up sleepily from the double bed where she enjoys sand slept shh he warned the walls were thin mama would be mad as flies in a fruit jar if they woke her up this time of day he patted me belle's hair and yanked the twisted sheet up to her small chin just over the cow field he whispered maybelle smiled and snuggled down under the sheet gonna run maybe of course he was going to run he hadn't gotten up early every day all summer to run he figured if he worked at it and lord had he worked he could be the fastest runner in the fifth grade when school opened up he had to be the fastest not one of the fastest or next to the fastest but the fastest very best he tipped out out of the house the place was so rattly that it screeched wherever you put your foot down but jess had found that if you tip-toed it gave only a low moan and he could usually get outdoors without waking mama or ellie or brenda or joy-zan maybelle was another matter she was going on seven and she worshipped him which was okay sometimes when you were the only boy smashed between four sisters and the older two had despised you ever since you stopped letting them dress you up and wheel you around in their rusty old doll carriage and the littlest one cried if you looked at her cross-eyed it was nice to have somebody who worshipped you even if it got on handy sometimes he began to trot across the yard his breath was coming out in little puffs cold for august but it was early yet by noon time when his mom would have him out working it would be hot enough miss bessie stared at him sleepily as they climbed across the scrap heap over the fence and into the cow field she said looking for all the world like another maybelle with her big brown droopy eyes bang he said and took off flying around the cow field miss bessie strolled toward the center still following him with her droopy eyes chewing slowly she didn't look very smart even for a cow but she was plenty bright enough to get out of jess's way his straw colored hair flapped hard against his forehead and his arms and legs flew out every which way he had never learned to run properly but he was long legged for a 10 year old and no one had more grit than he lark creek elementary was short on everything especially athletic equipment so all the balls went to the upper grades at recess time after lunch even if a 5th grader started out the period with the ball it was sure to be in the hands of a 6th or 7th grader before the hour was half over the older boys always took the dry center of the upper field for their ball games while the girls claimed the small top section for hopscotch and jump rope and hanging around talking so the lower grade boys had started this running thing they would all line up on the far side of the lower field where it was either muddy or deep crusty ruts earl watson was no good at running but had a big mouth would yell bang and they'd race to a line they'd towed across at the other end one time last year jesse had won not just the first heat but the whole shebang only once but it put into his mouth a taste for winning ever since he'd been in first grade he'd been that crazy little kid that draws all the time but one day april the 22nd a drizzly monday it had been he ran ahead of them all the red mud slooching up between through the holes in the bottom of his sneakers for the rest of that day and until after lunch on the next he had been the fastest kid in the third fourth and fifth grades and he was only a fourth grader on tuesday went as usual but this year wayne pettis would be in the sixth grade he'd play football until christmas and baseball until june with the rest of the big guys anybody had a chance to be the fastest runner and by miss bessie this year it was going to be jesse oliver aarons jr jess pumped his arms harder and bent his head for the distant fence he could hear the third great boy screaming in mon they would follow him around like a country music star and maybelle would pop her buttons her brother was the fastest the best that ought to get the rest of the first grade something to chew their cuts on even his dad would be proud jess rounded the corner he couldn't keep going quite so fast but he continued running for a while it would build him up maybelle would tell daddy so it wouldn't look as though he just was a bragger maybe dad would be so proud he'd forget all about how tired he was from the long drive back and forth to washington and the digging and hauling all day he would get right down on the floor and wrestle the way they used to old dad would be surprised at how strong he'd gotten in the last couple of years his body was begging him to quit but just pushed it on he had to let that puny chest of his know who his boss jess it was maybelle yelling from the other side of the scrap heap mama says you gotta come in and eat now leave the milk until later oh crud he'd run too long now everyone would know he'd been out and starting on him yeah okay he turned still running and headed for the scrap heap without breaking his rhythm he climbed over the fence scrambled across the scrap heap thumped mabel on the head and tried it on to the house well look at the big olympic star said ellie banging two cups onto the table so the strong black coffee sloshed out sweating like a knock kneed mule just pulled pushed his damp hair out of his face and plunked down on the wooden bench he dumped two spoonfuls of sugar into his cup and slurped to keep the hot coffee from scalding his mouth ooh mama he stinks brenda pinched her nose with her pinky cripped delicately make him wash get over here to the sink and wash yourself his mother said without raising her eyes from the stove and step on it these grits are scorching the bottom of the pot already mama not again brenda whined lord he was tired there wasn't a muscle in his body that didn't ache you heard what mama said ellie yelled at his back i can't stand it mama brenda again make him get a smelly self off this bench jess put his cheek down on the bare wood of the table top jesse his mother was looking now and put on a shirt yes him he dragged himself to the sink the water he flipped on his face in his arms prickled like ice his hot skin crawled under the cold drops mae bell was standing in the kitchen door watching him get me a shirt maybelle she looked as if her mouth was set to say no but instead she said you should not to beat me on in the head and went off obediently to fetch his t-shirt good old maybelle joyce and would have been screaming yet from that little tap four-year-olds were at pure pain i got plenty of chores neat doing around here this morning his mother announced as they were finishing the grits in red gravy his mother was from georgia and still cooked like it oh mama ellie and brenda squawked in concert these girls could get out of work faster than grasshoppers could slip through your fingers mama you promised me and brenda we could go to millsberg for school shopping you ain't got no money for school shopping mama we're just going to look around lord he wished brenda would stop whining so christmas you don't want us to have no fun at all any fun ella corrected her primly oh shut up ellie ignored her miss timmons is coming by to pick us up i told lolly sunday you said it was okay i feel dumb calling her and saying you changed your mind oh all right but i ain't got no money to give you any money something whispered inside jess's head i know mama we'll just take the five dollars daddy promise stuff promise us no more in that what five dollars oh mama you remember ellie's voice was sweeter than a melted mars bar daddy said last week we girls were going to have something for school oh take it his mother said angrily reaching for her cracked vinyl purse on the shelf above the stove she counted out five wrinkled bills mama brenda was starting again can't we have just one more so it'll be three each no mama you can't buy nothing for two 250 just one little pack of notebook papers gone up to no ellie got up noisily and began to clear the table your turn to wash brenda she said loudly ah ellie ellie jabbed her with a spoon jesse saw that look brenda shut up her wine halfway out of her rose lost her lipstick mouth she wasn't as smart as ellie but even she knew not to push mama too far which left jess to do the work as usual mama never sent the babies out to help although if he worked it right he could usually get maybelle to do something he put his head down on the table the running had done him in this morning through his top ear came the sounds of the timmins old buick wants oil his dad would say and the happy buzz of voices outside the screen door as ellie and brenda squashed in among the seven timminses all right jess get your lazy self off that bench miss bessie's bag is probably dragon ground by now and you still got beaten to pick lazy he was the lazy one he gave his poor dead weight overhead one minute more on the table top jesse okay mama i'm going it was maybelle who came to tell him in the bean patch that people were moving into the old perkins place down on the next farm just wiped his hair out of his eyes and squinted sure enough a u-haul was parked right by the door one of those big jointed ones these people had a lot of junk but they wouldn't last the perkins place was one of those ratty old country houses you moved into because you had no decent place to go and moved out as quickly as you could he thought later how peculiar it was that here was probably the biggest thing in his life and he had shrugged it off as nothing the flies were buzzing around his sweating face and shoulders he dropped the beans into the bucket and swatted with both hands give me a shirt maybelle the flies were more important than in a u-haul mabel jogged to the end of the row and picked up his t-shirt from where it had been discarded earlier she walked back holding it with two fingers way out in front of her oh it stinks she said just as brenda would have shut up he said and grab the shirt away from her