4. Wednesday

Chapter 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." "How?" asked Casey. "What'd they do, pop off his foot?" "I don't know how it happened," said Kenny. "I wasn't there. Somebody told my cousin about it, and my cousin doesn't lie." "Which toes did he lose?" asked Judy.

"The thumb-toe and the pinky-toe, I think. He still has his three middle ones." "They're not called the thumb-toe and pinky-toe," said Stuart. "It's big toe and little toe." "My thumb-toe isn't my biggest toe," said Melanie. "My second toe is bigger than my thumb-toe." "My toes are different on each foot," said Judy Jasper. Judy took off her shoes and socks. She explained that her parents' feet were different. On her mother's feet, the thumb-toe was the biggest. On her father's feet, the second toe was the biggest. Judy showed everyone her feet. On her left foot, her thumb-toe was the biggest. On her right foot, the second toe was the biggest. "I call this one my mommy foot, and this one my daddy foot," she said. Nick stared at Judy's feet. "That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my whole life," he said. Marvin didn't even look at Judy's amazing feet. He was thinking about how often his shoelaces came untied, even when they were double-knotted. The lunch teacher, Mrs. Grant, came by and made Judy put her shoes and socks back on.