Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson [29]
“It ain’t beautiful,” May Belle broke in. “It’s scary. Nailing holes right through somebody’s hand.”
“May Belle’s right.” Jess reached down into the deepest pit of his mind. “It’s because we’re all vile sinners God made Jesus die.”
“Do you think that’s true?”
He was shocked. “It’s in the Bible, Leslie.”
She looked at him as if she were going to argue, then seemed to change her mind. “It’s crazy, isn’t it?” She shook her head. “You have to believe it, but you hate it. I don’t have to believe it, and I think it’s beautiful.” She shook her head again. “It’s crazy.”
May Belle had her eyes all squinched as though Leslie was some strange creature in a zoo. “You gotta believe the Bible, Leslie.”
“Why?” It was a genuine question. Leslie wasn’t being smarty.
“’Cause if you don’t believe the Bible”—May Belle’s eyes were huge—“God’ll damn you to hell when you die.”
“Where’d she ever hear a thing like that?” Leslie turned on Jess as though she were about to accuse him of some wrong he had committed against his sister. He felt hot and caught by her voice and words.
He dropped his gaze to the gunnysack and began to fiddle with the raveled edge.
“That’s right, ain’t it, Jess?” May Belle’s shrill voice demanded. “Don’t God damn you to hell if you don’t believe the Bible?”
Jess pushed his hair out of his face. “I reckon,” he muttered.
“I don’t believe it,” Leslie said. “I don’t even think you’ve read the Bible.”
“I read most of it.” Jess said, still fingering the sack. “S’bout the only book we got around our place.” He looked up at Leslie and half grinned.
She smiled. “OK,” she said. “But I still don’t think God goes around damning people to hell.”
They smiled at each other trying to ignore May Belle’s anxious little voice. “But Leslie,” she insisted. “What if you die? What’s going to happen to you if you die?”
NINE
The Evil Spell
On Easter Monday the rain began again in earnest. It was as though the elements were conspiring to ruin their short week of freedom. Jess and Leslie sat cross-legged on the porch at the Burkes’, watching the wheels of a passing truck shoot huge sprays of muddy water to its rear.
“That ain’t no fifty-five miles per hour,” Jess muttered.
Just then something came out of the window of the cab. Leslie jumped to her feet. “Litterbug!” she screamed after the already disappearing taillights.
Jess stood up, too. “What d’ya want to do?”
“What I want to do is go to Terabithia,” she said, looking out mournfully at the pouring rain.
“Heck, let’s go,” he said.
“OK,” she said, suddenly brightening. “Why not?”
She got her boots and raincoat and considered the umbrella. “D’ya think we could swing across holding the umbrella?”
He shook his head. “Nah.”
“We better stop by your house and get your boots and things.”
He shrugged. “I don’t have nothing that fits. I’ll just go like this.”
“I’ll get you an old coat of Bill’s.” She started up the stairs. Judy appeared in the hallway.
“What are you kids doing?” It was the same words that Jess’s mother might have used, but it didn’t come out the same way. Judy’s eyes were kind of fuzzed over as she spoke, and her voice sounded as though it were being broadcast from miles away.
“We didn’t mean to bother you, Judy.”
“That’s all right, I’m stuck right now. I might as well stop. Have you had any lunch?”
“S’all right, Judy. We can get something ourselves.”
Judy’s eyes focused slightly. “You’ve got your boots on.”
Leslie looked down at her feet. “Oh, yeah,” she said, as though she were just noticing them herself. “We thought we’d go out for a while.”
“Is it raining again?”
“Yeah.”
“I used to like to walk in the rain.” Judy smiled the kind of smile May Belle did in her sleep. “Well, if you two can manage….”
“Sure.”
“Is Bill back yet?”
“No. He said he wouldn’t be back until late, not to worry.”
“Fine,” she said. “Oh,” she said suddenly, and her eyes popped wide open. “Oh!” She almost ran back to her room, and the plinkety-plink of the typewriter began at once.
Leslie was grinning. “She came unstuck.