Girl in the Arena - Lise Haines [100]
Only then did I say, —Well, maybe next week if I can find a sitter for Thad.
You know how it is when you get something you want and then you have no idea what to do with it? It’s kind of that way with Joe Byers. He agreed to come all the way from Akron, Ohio, despite his hip and knee problems. He rarely travels now that he’s in his seventies, but he actually wrote to me after he heard about what had happened to Thad.
I sent him a plane ticket and got him a room at the Charles. He agreed to an interview as long as I guaranteed his anonymity while he’s in town—which meant a serious coordinated effort with Mark to outwit the paparazzi.
So now I’m crouched here in a hallway of the Charles, thinking about what I really need to ask Byers when he opens the door because this might be my only shot at him. Maybe I need to say: just tell me the facts as you recall them, Mr. Byers, the plain truth about how Glad sport started. I’ll put things down exactly as you dictate them so people in the future can dissect and misinterpret, and psychologize and generally mangle your words until no one knows what you said anymore, but at least I’ll know what I heard from you.
I know you can’t push the plant back into the seed, but if I’m going to sit around dreaming, I’d like to imagine there’s a way to put an end to Glad sport someday. They ended it in Rome, and the war in Vietnam ground to a halt, and the Berlin Wall came down—that kind of thing.
And then maybe I could go on a tour, because I’d know I gave A History of the Gladiator Sports Association a decent ending, and I could talk with young people, young women in particular, about how we once lived in a time of blood. Blood and money and lots of publicity.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks to my amazing daughter, Sienna, who helped me navigate virtual reality, reminded me of the teen world, and opened up a window so I could understand the only way this wild book could possibly end; to my editor, Melanie Cecka, my agent, Charlotte Sheedy, and Meredith Kaffel—the divine team who lived Lyn’s world every step of the way; to the Briggs-Copeland Lectureship at Harvard University that made Rome possible; to the Burdicks, who gave me respite so I could toil by the surf last summer; to Daniel J. Quinn, who designed and created my Web site; to my students, who rock; to my intrepid family and friends; especially to my father, Norton Kay, who is the salt of the earth.
LISE HAINES is Writer in Residence at Emerson College, has held a Briggs-Copeland lectureship at Harvard, and was a finalist for the PEN Nelson Algren Award and the Paterson Fiction Prize. She is the author of two adult novels, In My Sister’s Country and Small Acts of Sex and Electricity, as well as many essays and short stories. Girl in the Arena is her first work for young adults. She lives in the Boston area.
www.lisehaines.com
Praise for
GIRL IN THE ARENA
“Vividly rendered . . . an immersing read that is likely to attract fans of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.” —Booklist
“The showdown is cleverly designed, and the novel’s girl-power heart is in the right place, but what makes Girl in the Arena tick is Lyn’s engaging, often-sardonic voice. . . . She makes it easy to root for her.” —LA Times
“Entertainingly gruesome and emotionally resonant.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Haines’s protagonist is street-smart, socially conscious, and wise all the way through . . . . Readers will appreciate that her victory comes from life on her own terms.” —SLJ
“What Lise Haines has wrought is a kind of comic book without pictures, a wild pop novel that—rocking with violent energy and bopping with social satire—can generate suspense, horror, laughter, and even twinges of tenderness.” —Tom Robbins
“A heart-pounding, suspenseful read with twists and turns you won’t see coming.” —The Compulsive Reader
“Girl in the Arena is full of nonstop action that will keep any reader hooked.” —BookDivas.com
“Haines offers a unique look at today’s society and its bloodthirsty