Neal Shusterman: Bruiser

It’s only after they leave the room that it truly begins to hurt. I hold Brontë—not just to comfort her, but to comfort myself as well, because maybe I’m feeling as awful as she is, whether I show it or not.

But in that bottomless moment when the whole world feels like it’s tearing in half, I realize deep down that this is the moment we’ve been waiting for since the day Brew fell silent. We’ve finally come back around to where things were when we took Brewster and Cody Rawlins into our home…

…which means this is the moment that we have finally, truly taken back our own pain.

That day at the pool we could only bring Brew halfway back—he needed something more to complete the journey home. But now we’ve finally taken full possession of what is rightfully ours, because everyone must feel their own pain—and as awful as that is, it’s also wonderful…

…because isn’t that the sound of a phone ringing?

Not just one, but all of them. Our house phone here in the kitchen, Brontë’s cell phone up in her room, Mom’s in her purse—for all I know every phone in the world is ringing at that very moment. But there’s one ring in particular that grabs my attention.

In the kitchen junk drawer sits my old waterlogged cell phone, which I never had the chance to replace. It hasn’t worked since the day it journeyed with me to the bottom of the pool—but as I open the drawer, there it is, playing a familiar ringtone, its call light blinking as magically and impossibly bright as a firefly.

Like me, Brontë looks at it with awe, and a little bit of fear—because there are some things you simply know. Miles beyond intuition, and one step past a leap of faith, there are some things you know!

“Answer it,” she says.

But instead I put it into her hands and smile.

“I think it’s for you.”

As she moves the phone to her ear, I can already feel our spirits rising with anticipation—amazed at how quickly that can happen after our parents’ news. I’ve always been a rational guy. I believe what I can see, but now I also believe there is room in the world for miracles. Maybe not the ones we expect, but they’re miracles all the same. They happen every day if only we pay attention.

“Hello?” says Brontë into a phone that shouldn’t work—and the smile on her face, the sudden joy in her eyes tell me everything I need to know. Yes, today is a day for our family to grieve, but now it’s also a day to rejoice!

So open your eyes, Brew. Open your eyes, and talk to us. We’ll keep our pain, but I promise we’ll share our joy. Talk to us, Brew… because we’re finally ready to take your call.

NEAL SHUSTERMAN is the award-winning author of more than thirty books for teens that span many genres. He has also written screenplays for motion pictures and television shows such as Animorphs and Goosebumps . He won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for THE SCHWA WAS HERE and has had numerous books on American Library Association and International Reading Association award lists, including UNWIND and EVERLOST. Neal lives in Southern California with his four children. You can visit him online at www.storyman.com. Visit www.AuthorTracker.comfor exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Unwind

Everwild

The Schwa Was Here

Antsy Does Time

Full Tilt

Downsiders

The Dark Side of Nowhere

The Eyes of Kid Midas

What Daddy Did

Speeding Bullet

Dissidents

The Shadow Club Rising

The Shadow Club

DARK FUSION SERIES

Dread Locks

Red Rider’s Hood

Duckling Ugly

STAR SHARDS SERIES

Scorpion Shards

Thief of Souls Shattered Sky

STORY COLLECTIONS

Darkness Creeping

MindQuakes

MindStorms

AUTHOR’S WEBSITE: www.storyman.com

Jacket photo — 2010 Getty Images

Jacket design by Joel Tippie

BRUISER. Copyright ©2010 by Neal Shusterman.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-06-113408-1 (trade bdg.)—ISBN 978-0-06-113409-8 (lib. bdg.)

FIRST EDITION EPub Edition — May 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-200309-6

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