Chapter 80

Jeff Alexander called after school and asked me to come to his house. “I have something to show you,” he said.

I got there in record time. Jeff met me outside and waved me to the garage. He had a Boston Red Sox hat pulled low, and he seemed to have a spring in his step.

He opened the garage door slowly and I saw the tandem, blue with silver stripes. The backseat had a carrier behind it.

“A bike shop in the Springs donated it,” Jeff said, beaming. “Want to try it?”

I hopped on the front, and Jeff climbed on the back. The driveway had gravel on it, so it was difficult getting to the street, but once we were there, we took off. Jeff didn’t weigh much, and we flew down the hill whooping and hollering.

I looked back and saw Jeff pull off his hat and wave it in the air. “Wahoo! This is going to be the best summer ever!”

His bald head used to make me cringe, but now I barely noticed. Jeff was Jeff, hair or not.

I pulled over at a little park. Kids screamed as they ran through the playground equipment. Jeff and I found two open swings and sat.

“Can’t believe I’m actually going to do this,” he said.

“And I’m going to be there the whole way.”

We talked about the supplies we would need and how much training we’d have to have before the race started.

“It’s kind of like the Tour de France,” Jeff said. “It’ll be hard, but is there anything good in life that isn’t hard?”

“Twinkies.”

He laughed, then got quiet. “Ever had anything that stuck in your head that you couldn’t get rid of? You know, something you couldn’t figure out?”

Sam, I thought. “Sure. Why?”

“Why God lets bad stuff happen.” He pulled his hat low over his eyes again. “I don’t blame God anymore about this. I mean, I don’t think he gave me cancer to punish me—I used to. I tried to think of all the things I’d done wrong and figure out which one made me get this.” He pointed to his head. “But I’m never going to get married or have kids. I might not even get to graduate high school—I can tell the doctors even think eighth grade is a stretch.”

“You’re gonna beat this,” I said. “The medicine they have, the treatment. You’ll probably outlive all of us.”

Jeff smiled. “I hope. But what if . . . what if we don’t even get to go on this ride?”

“We’re riding in the mountains this summer together. That’s it. End of story.”

Jeff smiled even bigger. “Yeah. We’re really going to do it, aren’t we, Bryce?”