A Matter of Life and Death or Something Read Online Free
Author: Ben Stephenson
Tags: Fiction, Literary, FIC019000
woods. Itâs this small clearing with no trees except on the sides, which are very nice to sit under. It was so beautiful out that day, and spring was coming up quick. That was amazing, because kind of soon after that it would be summer vacation. The snow had been disappearing: the street was extraordinarily clear, but it still stuck around the ground in the woods. The snow was 50% still there. I wandered through the trees, thanking God for not making winter last forever.
I didnât know why Simon worried about me playing in the woods so much. One time he called me a âlittle escapistâ when I was going out the door, and I didnât know what that meant, so I decided to have fun in the woods and forget about it instead of figuring it out. I found out later that it means someone who chains themself up and dunks themself underwater but gets out without drowning. Which is weird, and I still didnât know why Simon called me that; itâs not like I ever pretended to be an escapist or anything.
I sat down on the sea turtle rock and photosynthesized. I let the sun hit me in the face and make me feel glowy. In the shade it was chilly, so I was wearing my green jacket over my t-shirt, but in the sunlight it was so warm. I thought about the trees and how they were basically doing the same thing: letting the sun warm them up and keep them alive. I thought about some other things.
Like how my street was so long, and all the houses stood far apart like they hated each other. And a bunch of people lived inside the houses, but I didnât know any of them yet. As far as kids my age, thereâs only Finch and Victoria. Simon Alexander Finch is an annoying boy one year younger than me, who lives three houses away, which is way farther than it sounds, because of how separate the houses are. I already have enough Simons in my life as it is, obviously, so I just call him Finch. Finch and I only saw each other once in a blue mood, and that was fine by me.
I mean I didnât hate Finch. Sometimes I wanted to call him my nemesis, but that was only because I liked the word ânemesis,â and not because it was the 100% truth. The truth is that I just didnât care much about him at all, really, and thatâs why we werenât friends. The thing is that his mom and my Simon thought that Finch and me were superb friends, so sometimes they made us play. It also didnât help that Finch was confused for some reason into thinking we were friends.
Finch just thinks heâs the best at everything. If youâre playing soccer with him, heâs going to tell you what a rainbow kick is, for the billionth time, and show you how heâs so good at doing them. And the thing is, heâs just not even good at doing them. Iâm not either, to be honest, but itâs not like I go around telling everybody I am or something.
Like one day a couple months before, Finch was in my woods with me, and we were over by the treehouse because Finch loves the treehouse because he doesnât have his own one, so he always wants to go look at it. So one second heâs telling me about how awesome my treehouse is, and then one second later heâs showing me some mistake that me and Simon made building it, and telling me that if heâd made it, it wouldâve been ten times stronger and ten times bigger and ten times cooler. But I couldnât think of anything ten times less true. I doubt he even owns a hammer. Then like always he asked why canât we just play in the treehouse, and I told him because it was so boring in there, but he climbed up anyway.
Then, to top it all off, he starts bragging to me.
âVictoria said she wants to be my girlfriend.â
He was always trying to make Victoria be his girlfriend.
âFinch, quit being so moronic. And sheâs way too much of a babe for you.â
Victoria Brown is too much of a babe for Finch. Victoriaâs a girl that me and Finch know,
I didnât know why Simon worried about me playing in the woods so much. One time he called me a âlittle escapistâ when I was going out the door, and I didnât know what that meant, so I decided to have fun in the woods and forget about it instead of figuring it out. I found out later that it means someone who chains themself up and dunks themself underwater but gets out without drowning. Which is weird, and I still didnât know why Simon called me that; itâs not like I ever pretended to be an escapist or anything.
I sat down on the sea turtle rock and photosynthesized. I let the sun hit me in the face and make me feel glowy. In the shade it was chilly, so I was wearing my green jacket over my t-shirt, but in the sunlight it was so warm. I thought about the trees and how they were basically doing the same thing: letting the sun warm them up and keep them alive. I thought about some other things.
Like how my street was so long, and all the houses stood far apart like they hated each other. And a bunch of people lived inside the houses, but I didnât know any of them yet. As far as kids my age, thereâs only Finch and Victoria. Simon Alexander Finch is an annoying boy one year younger than me, who lives three houses away, which is way farther than it sounds, because of how separate the houses are. I already have enough Simons in my life as it is, obviously, so I just call him Finch. Finch and I only saw each other once in a blue mood, and that was fine by me.
I mean I didnât hate Finch. Sometimes I wanted to call him my nemesis, but that was only because I liked the word ânemesis,â and not because it was the 100% truth. The truth is that I just didnât care much about him at all, really, and thatâs why we werenât friends. The thing is that his mom and my Simon thought that Finch and me were superb friends, so sometimes they made us play. It also didnât help that Finch was confused for some reason into thinking we were friends.
Finch just thinks heâs the best at everything. If youâre playing soccer with him, heâs going to tell you what a rainbow kick is, for the billionth time, and show you how heâs so good at doing them. And the thing is, heâs just not even good at doing them. Iâm not either, to be honest, but itâs not like I go around telling everybody I am or something.
Like one day a couple months before, Finch was in my woods with me, and we were over by the treehouse because Finch loves the treehouse because he doesnât have his own one, so he always wants to go look at it. So one second heâs telling me about how awesome my treehouse is, and then one second later heâs showing me some mistake that me and Simon made building it, and telling me that if heâd made it, it wouldâve been ten times stronger and ten times bigger and ten times cooler. But I couldnât think of anything ten times less true. I doubt he even owns a hammer. Then like always he asked why canât we just play in the treehouse, and I told him because it was so boring in there, but he climbed up anyway.
Then, to top it all off, he starts bragging to me.
âVictoria said she wants to be my girlfriend.â
He was always trying to make Victoria be his girlfriend.
âFinch, quit being so moronic. And sheâs way too much of a babe for you.â
Victoria Brown is too much of a babe for Finch. Victoriaâs a girl that me and Finch know,
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