Moon Runner by Carolyn Marsden Read Free Book Online

helping me try my best.”
    “If you don’t run fast, you can’t win,” said Ruth.
    “Or lose,” said Mina.
    “That’s a funny thing to say.”
    “You know, I just realized that I copped out by getting into the relay,” Mina said quietly.
    “How do you mean?”
    “I wanted to run fast but not risk anything.”
    “But if you run badly in the relay — like if you drop the baton — you blow it for everyone.”
    “That’s what Coach said. But losing the race, even for all of us, even for the school, never seemed as bad as beating you and not being friends with you anymore.”
    Silently, Ruth began to pick the flowers that grew in the grass. “Here, a bouquet for the winner.”
    Mina reached out her thumb and forefinger to take the collection of tiny stems from her friend.
    “Ruth,” she said after the shadow of the olive tree had slipped over their hearts, “I’ve discovered a secret about myself.”
    “Hmm?”
    “I love running. I love the way it feels. I love it more than anything.”
    “I know,” Ruth said. “Me, too.”
    “There’s the winning and losing part. And then there’s the way it makes me happy.”
    “I forget that part,” Ruth said quietly. “I just want to win.”
    Mina held Ruth’s bouquet against the sky. The little daisies were so white, their centers so purple.

The Fellow Friends ate lunches together again, gathering around the table to unwrap sandwiches and pop open their plastic containers. Alana’s mom made a special bag for the Friendship Ball. They wrote all their names on the bag with permanent marker so the ball would never get lost again.
    Ruth announced a Fellow Friends party at her house, scheduled to take place after the meet even if the team lost.
    A week after the City Meet, the whole class would be going to Ms. Jenner’s house for a full-moon potluck dinner. Mina planned to take watermelon cut into the different shapes of the moon’s phases.
    “I’ll be glad when this is over with and you can have fun again,” said Alana.
    In the early evenings, Mom and Mina jogged at the park. Poochie loved to run alongside them, yipping.
    Paige was content on the swings. “Look, Mina!” she called out one evening.
    Mina looked to see the moon appearing from behind the clouds.
    “It’s getting round like a winner’s medal,” Paige said.
    Mina placed her hand over her chest where she hoped a medal would hang.
    Mina finished
Seven Steps to Treasure.
In the end, Francesca got to keep all of the diamonds after the bad guy went to jail. Always cautious, Francesca placed the diamonds in a safety deposit box until her twenty-first birthday.
    Mina handed the book to Mom. “Could you get me something more . . .”
    “Challenging?” Mom offered.
    “Yeah, I guess,” Mina said.
    All week she and the others ran the relay over and over in the afternoons until they glided through the routine, smoothly passing the baton. Sometimes Mina felt that instead of four separate girls, they’d become one creature that ran, passed, ran, passed, and ran again.
    If they won, they would be going to City. If they won at City, they would stand on a podium while the high-school band played the National Anthem, just like in the Olympics. Sometimes Mina whispered, “City” to herself just before she went to sleep.
    By the end of the week, the light side of the moon was winning over the dark. As Mina drew it, she thought of the fact that no matter how many times the moon disappeared, it always grew back. Someday she might run against Ruth again and lose. Or lose against another girl. But like the moon, if she lost, she would also win again.
    On the day of the track meet, Mina paused at the entry of Duncan Berring Elementary School. The playground was a solid mass of kids from the four schools, everyone practicing their running and jumping and throwing. A hot little breeze whipped the bunches of balloons and flags marking the events. It fluttered the school banners. Shouts, laughter, and the