(Chüd, this is Chüd, stand, be brave, be true, stand for your brother, your friends, believe, believe in all the things you have believed in, believe that if you tell the policeman you’re lost he’ll see that you get home safely, that there is a Tooth Fairy who lives in a huge enamel castle, and Santa Claus below the North Pole, making toys with his trove of elves, and that Captain Midnight could be real, yes, he could be in spite of Calvin and Cissy Clark’s big brother Carlton saying that was all a lot of baby stuff, believe that your mother and father will love you again, that courage is possible and words will come smoothly every time, no more Losers, no more cowering in a hole in the ground and calling it a clubhouse, no more crying in Georgie’s room because you couldn’t save him and didn’t know, believe in yourself, believe in the heat of that desire.)
He suddenly began to laugh in the darkness, not in hysteria but in utter
delighted amazement.
“OH SHIT, I BELIEVE IN ALL OF THOSE THINGS!” he shouted, and it was
true: even at eleven he had observed that things turned out right a ridiculous
amount of the time.
luke-skywalker