Tree of Life

Book I Chapter 03

TREE OF LIFE BOOK I

CHAPTER 03

Julian flew into the school and hunted down Brian. “Hey…Brian!”

Brian was on his way to homeroom. “Yeah, what?”

Julian paused and breathed. He dropped his hands onto his knees. He was completely out of breath. “You’ll…you’ll…never believe…”

Brian took a step back and scratched his head. “You know, there’s something different about you…”

“Yeah, I know!” A little better now, Julian straightened up.

“But…what is it?”  Brian crossed his arms. He began treading around Julian in a circle, sizing him up.

Julian bounced up and down. Then on one foot and then the other. “Look at me! Look at me!”

Brian’s eyes shot wide. “You’re not limping! Your leg! Your leg!”

“My leg!”

“Your leg’s all right!”

“Yea!”

The two boys hugged each other, jumped up and down and screamed. All the people in the hallway turned and frowned at them as they hurried by and on to their homerooms.

“So, what happened?” Brian clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Did you get some kind of special medicine or something?”

“Well, kind of…” Julian reached up and adjusted his glasses.

“Wow, that doctor of yours must be something else!”

Julian laughed.

“Hey I gotta head off to homeroom. I’ve been late like everyday for a month…” Brian began drifting away.

“But I haven’t told you…”

“Tell me later then…” Brian disappeared down the hall.

Later turned out not to be lunch. Julian didn’t share the same lunch period as Brian that day. In fact, that particular day, the two boys didn’t have any classes together, so Julian didn’t get a chance to see his friend again until well after school. Keeping a secret this size was a little like having a bladder infection. If you’ve ever had one, you’d know.

Julian found his friend, finally, in the boys’ locker room, after school, changing and getting ready for basketball practice. This was the first year that Brian had made the team.

Brian was sitting on a bench, tying his shoe. Julian rushed over to him. “Hey, I still have to tell you about that thing. It’s about my leg.”

“Why? I thought it was better.”

“It is better! But I haven’t told you how I got better.”

“Okay, but can’t it wait until after practice?”

“It’s important.”

“How important can it be? After practice, okay?” Brian smiled. He finished doing up his shoe and raced out into the gym.

Julian sighed. He shrugged. Hoisting his bag up to his shoulder, he followed the other boys and wandered out into the gym and the basketball court.

Outside, Julian trudged over to the far end of the court and plopped himself down onto a bench. This was his usual spot for basketball practice. The coach was just telling the boys on the team to start warming up, grab some balls out of the storage bin and practice shooting. He had a few things to take care of first. He told them to behave, and this meant you. He was speaking to the tallest boy on the team, who of course, was Big Bobby. The coach stomped back into his office.