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“But you’re still scared?” asked her father.
“Yes.”
“Try to be brave,” said her father. “Remember, the fear isn’t on the outside. The fear is inside your head.”
Linzy’s head came out from under the covers. She looked puzzled, as if she was trying to figure out what that meant.
Marvin tried to figure it out, too.
“You need to stand up to that storm,” said her father. “And say, ‘I’m not afraid of you!’ ”
Linzy gave it a try. She sat up straight in her bed and looked out the window. “I’m not afraid of you!” she declared.
“Good,” said her father. “That’s my brave girl.” He kissed her good night, then started out the door. “C’mon, Marvin.”
Marvin could see Linzy trembling with fear. As he walked out the door, he heard her whisper to herself, “I’m a gold unicorn. Yes, I am. Oh, I’m a very brave unicorn. Yes, I am.”
4
Wednesday
Marvin knew what he had to do. He just had to stand up to Suicide Hill and say, “I’m not afraid of you!”
It was like his father had said. The fear was all inside his head. There was nothing on the outside that was scary. His mother would never let him ride down Suicide Hill if it was really dangerous. Would she?
Jacob had gone down Suicide Hill lots of times. If Jacob could do it, so could he.
“Keep your tongue inside your mouth,” said Casey Happleton.
Marvin was eating lunch. He thought his tongue was inside his mouth.
“My brother’s friend knows someone who bit off the tip of his tongue while riding down Suicide Hill,” said Casey.
Marvin touched the tip of his tongue to his teeth.
“It wasn’t even a wipe-out,” said Casey. “He was going down Suicide Hill real fast, and the tip of his tongue was sticking out of his mouth, like this.”
Casey held her fists out in front of her, like she was gripping handlebars. She looked like she was concentrating really hard. Her tongue stuck out of her mouth.
Everybody else at the table laughed, but Marvin didn’t see anything funny about it.
“Then his bike hit just a tiny little itty-bitty rock,” said Casey, “and he bit it off. He didn’t even know he did it until he got to the bottom of the hill and tried to talk.”
Casey did an impersonation of someone trying to talk without a tongue. Again, everyone except Marvin laughed.
“What happened to his tongue?” asked Stuart.
“No one knows,” said Casey. “They had a whole huge search party out to look for it, but no one ever found it. It’s still up there, somewhere.”
“Maybe Marvin will find it,” said Judy.
Marvin shrugged. His mouth was closed tight. His tongue was safely on the inside.
“Be sure your shoelaces are tied real good,” warned Kenny. “My cousin knows someone whose shoelace got wrapped around his bike pedal. He was riding his bike real fast, and every time the pedal went around, it made his shoe tighter … and tighter … and tighter … and tighter … and tighter. There was nothing he could do. He was going too fast to stop.”
“What happened?” asked Nick.
“It strangled his foot. He lost two toes.”
