Runner

Near the blackberry bushes along the railroad tracks, an unhoused man asks Chance for money. Chance says he doesn’t have any, but the man keeps asking and grabs his sleeve. Chance pushes him away, and he falls.

At Walter’s Cafe, Kim Lawton, one of Chance’s mom’s friends, gives him hot chocolate for free. He goes back to the unhoused man and gives him the quarters he would have spent on the hot chocolate. He sees a wound on the man’s palm from falling after Chance pushed him. Chance apologizes—he didn’t mean to hurt him.

When Chance arrives at Lincoln High, he’s missed all of first period and half of second period. In class, he sits in the back and tunes everything out. During lunch, he gets a Coke and sits in the corner. He spots Melissa, but she doesn’t look at him. He considers skipping his afternoon classes, but leaving school will only make his day longer.

In World Issues, Mr. Arnold continues talking about Iraq, terrorism, and other “crap.” Arnold and Melissa fight while Chance thinks about bills and money. After class, Melissa is upset that Chance didn’t speak up. Melissa doesn’t worry about money. She drives a new Jetta, wears expensive clothes, and lives in a large house that has a view of Puget Sound.

Since Chance turned 15, he’s washed pots on the weekends at Ray’s—an upscale fish restaurant near Pier B. He asks his boss, the cranky Jeff Creager, for more hours, but business is slow, so Creager can’t give him more work—though he knows his dad lost his job.

Money consumes Chance, and he thinks every kid has it but him. They have money for cars, cell phones, CD players, clothes, and movies. He wonders why money comes easily for some people while others have to struggle for it.

At home, he asks his dad if he paid the moorage fee, but his dad says they can go three months without paying. By then, he’ll have a new job. Chance goes to Little City Hall (a place where people in Seattle can get help with services and programs) and asks for help applying for food stamps, claiming that he is doing this on behalf of another family. Back at the boat, Chance fills out the application, but he knows his dad won’t sign it and mail it.

On Saturday, Chance sleeps for as long as he can before breakfast and his shift at Ray’s. Eight hours later, he comes home, reheats a frozen pizza, and watches an unfunny movie about gamblers. His dad is on the deck in the rain. Chance tells him to come in. His dad promises to find a job.

On Sunday, Chance’s dad gets a haircut and does a wash. During the week, he’s clean and looking for jobs in the Seattle Times. When he’s not drinking, his dad is an “OK guy” and a great worker. On Thursday, his dad starts drinking again.

In Mr. Arnold’s class, they discuss Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” speech (1863), where the president claims the United States has a government for the people and by the people. Chance calls Lincoln’s rhetoric “crap”—the government is for and by “rich people,” and people from the lower economic classes get “screwed over” and die in Iraq or the Afghanistan War. Mr. Arnold thinks Chance has a valid point and encourages him to participate more often.

Melissa waits for Chance on the ramp to Pier B. She says it sounds “neat” to live on a boat, and she offers to buy Chance a hot chocolate at Little Coney. Chance accepts, and Melissa tells Chance she has thought about his comments on economic inequality in class. Her family is well off, and her two older brothers attend Yale. If they were poor, they might be fighting in the Middle East.

Melissa tells Chance her dad and his dad went to high school together. They played on the baseball team and were best friends. If Chance and his dad need help, then Melissa’s dad can help them. Chance cuts her off—they don’t need help.

On a cold Friday afternoon, Chace runs like an “animal”—all motion and no thinking. On the way to the utility room, the “fat guy” from the marina office stops him. The “fat guy” handles boats that need temporary moorage. He wears sunglasses and Hawaiian shirts, and he’s bald.

The “fat guy” and Chance talk about how Chance runs every day. After Chance takes a shower, the “fat guy” is there, and Chance calls him a “pervert.” The “fat guy” says he has a way for Chance to make money, and it doesn’t involve sex. He gives Chance a $100 bill to listen to the details.

The “fat man” tells Chance he’ll pay him $200 a week to run his usual route but with a backpack. He’ll stop at the maple tree, and if he sees a package, he’ll put it in the backpack. He’ll return to the utility room and leave the backpack in the locker. The man can open the locker with his keys.

Chance doesn’t want to smuggle drugs, but the man doesn’t know if they’re drugs. He thinks Chance should stop being a “pain” and accept the job. If he doesn’t, he and his dad will lose their boat. Chance knows that the man’s scheme involves criminality and that there is no future in it, but what concerns Chance is the immediate present—he needs money.

Chance hates his job washing pots at Ray’s. The room doesn’t have a window, and it’s hot. He only makes $8 an hour, and after taxes, the rate dips below $7 per hour. On Sunday, Creager cuts Chance’s hours, so Chance quits. On his way home, he thinks about what Melissa and the other students would think about his new job as a “drug smuggler.”