Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson Read Free Book Online Page A

save the timber wolves or redwoods or singing whales, and he was scared to open his mouth and show once and for all how dumb he was.
    He wasn’t comfortable having Leslie at his house either. Joyce Ann would stare, her index finger pulling down her mouth and making her drool. Brenda and Ellie always managed some remark about “ girl friend.” His mother acted stiff and funny just the way she did when she had to go up to schoolabout something. Later she would refer to Leslie’s “tacky” clothes. Leslie always wore pants, even to school. Her hair was “shorter than a boy’s.” Her parents were “hardly more than hippies.” May Belle either tried to push in with him and Leslie or sulked at being left out. His father had seen Leslie only a few times and had nodded to show that he had noticed her, but his mother said that she was sure he was fretting that his only son did nothing but play with girls, and they both were worried about what would become of it.
    Jess didn’t concern himself with what would “become of it.” For the first time in his life he got up every morning with something to look forward to. Leslie was more than his friend. She was his other, more exciting self—his way to Terabithia and all the worlds beyond.
    Terabithia was their secret, which was a good thing, for how could Jess have ever explained it to an outsider? Just walking down the hill toward the woods made something warm and liquid steal through his body. The closer he came to the dry creek bed and the crab apple tree rope the more hecould feel the beating of his heart. He grabbed the end of the rope and swung out toward the other bank with a kind of wild exhilaration and landed gently on his feet, taller and stronger and wiser in that mysterious land.
    Leslie’s favorite place besides the castle stronghold was the pine forest. There the trees grew so thick at the top that the sunshine was veiled. No low bush or grass could grow in that dim light, so the ground was carpeted with golden needles.
    â€œI used to think this place was haunted,” Jess had confessed to Leslie the first afternoon he had revved up his courage to bring her there.
    â€œOh, but it is,” she said. “But you don’t have to be scared. It’s not haunted with evil things.”
    â€œHow do you know?”
    â€œYou can just feel it. Listen.”
    At first he heard only the stillness. It was the stillness that had always frightened him before, but this time it was like the moment after Miss Edmunds finished a song, just after the chords hummed down to silence. Leslie was right. They stood there, not moving, not wanting the swish of dry needlesbeneath their feet to break the spell. Far away from their former world came the cry of geese heading southward.
    Leslie took a deep breath. “This is not an ordinary place,” she whispered. “Even the rulers of Terabithia come into it only at times of greatest sorrow or of greatest joy. We must strive to keep it sacred. It would not do to disturb the Spirits.”
    He nodded, and without speaking, they went back to the creek bank where they shared together a solemn meal of crackers and dried fruit.

FIVE
The Giant Killers
    Leslie liked to make up stories about the giants that threatened the peace of Terabithia, but they both knew that the real giant in their lives was Janice Avery. Of course, it wasn’t only Jess and Leslie that she was after. She had two friends, Wilma Dean and Bobby Sue Henshaw, who were almost as big as she was, and the three of them would roam the playground, grabbing up hopscotch rocks, running through jump ropes, and laughing while second graders screamed. They would even stand outside the girls’ room first thing every morning and make the little girls give them their milk money before they’d let them go to the bathroom.
    May Belle, unfortunately, was a slow learner. Her daddy had brought her a package of