Truth: Reading helps you discover who you are. Reading makes you more empathetic.
Truth: In a war, books can be weapons.
On my way to meet Richard after school, I started flipping through the pages of the Nietzsche book. There was a whole section with his most famous quotes.
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we give comfort to ourselves, murderers of all murderers.
Dead are all Gods: now we want Superman to live.
Once you said “God” when you gazed upon the distant seas, but now I have taught you to say “Superman.”
I am the herald of lightning.
You must have chaos within you to give birth to a rising star.
All the truths that are kept silent become poisonous.
And if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
The next page was ripped out, leaving a jagged edge sticking out from the center. As I ran my finger along it, a sharp corner caught a piece of my skin where it met my nail. I pulled my hand away, nearly dropping the book on the slushy sidewalk. A tiny drop of blood popped out, and I watched as it spread, leaving a bright-red crescent under my fingernail. I squeezed my index finger and waited for the blood to clot.
My phone buzzed. I’d set up notifications for any news related to Jawad’s kidnapping.
South Side Times Breaking News
Parents of missing student receive text from son’s cell. Police believe kidnapping may have been staged to cover up running away. Chicago P.D. to hold press conference at 5:00 p.m. (CST).
What the hell?
I checked the time on my phone. I wasn’t going to make that garbage cookie date with Richard.