Doctors have come from distant cities just to see me
stand over my bed
disbelieving what they’re seeing
They say I must be one of the wonders of god’s own creation
and as far as they can see they can offer no explanation
—NATALIE MERCHANT, “Wonder”
Contents
Part One: August
1.Ordinary
2.Why I Didn’t Go to School
3.How I Came to Life
4.Christopher’s House
5.Driving
6.Paging Mr. Tushman
7.Nice Mrs. Garcia
8.Jack Will, Julian, and Charlotte
9.The Grand Tour
10.The Performance Space
11.The Deal
12.Home
13.First-Day Jitters
14.Locks
15.Around the Room
16.Lamb to the Slaughter
17.Choose Kind
18.Lunch
19.The Summer Table
20.One to Ten
21.Padawan
22.Wake Me Up when September Ends
23.Jack Will
24.Mr. Browne’s October Precept
25.Apples
26.Halloween
27.School Pictures
28.The Cheese Touch
29.Costumes
30.The Bleeding Scream
31.Names
Part Two: Via
1.A Tour of the Galaxy
2.Before August
3.Seeing August
4.August Through the Peephole
5.High School
6.Major Tom
7.After School
8.The Padawan Bites the Dust
9.An Apparition at the Door
10.Breakfast
11.Genetics 101
12.The Punnett Square
13.Out with the Old
14.October 31
15.Trick or Treat
16.Time to Think
Part Three: Summer
1.Weird Kids
2.The Plague
3.The Halloween Party
4.November
5.Warning: This Kid Is Rated R
6.The Egyptian Tomb
Part Four: Jack
1.The Call
2.Carvel
3.Why I Changed My Mind
4.Four Things
5.Ex-Friends
6.Snow
7.Fortune Favors the Bold
8.Private School
9.In Science
10.Partners
11.Detention
12.Season’s Greetings
13.Letters, Emails, Facebook, Texts
14.Back from Winter Break
15.The War
16.Switching Tables
17.Why I Didn’t Sit with August the First Day of School Sides
18.August’s House
19.The Boyfriend
Part Five: Justin
1.Olivia’s Brother
2.Valentine’s Day
3.Our Town
4.Ladybug
5.The Bus Stop
6.Rehearsal
7.Bird
8.The Universe
Part Six: August
1.North Pole
2.The Auggie Doll
3.Lobot
4.Hearing Brightly
5.Via’s Secret
6.My Cave
7.Goodbye
8.Daisy’s Toys
9.Heaven
10.Understudy
11.The Ending
Part Seven: Miranda
1.Camp Lies
2.School
3.What I Miss Most
4.Extraordinary, but No One There to See
5.The Performance
6.After the Show
Part Eight: August
1.The Fifth-Grade Nature Retreat
2.Known For
3.Packing
4.Daybreak
5.Day One
6.The Fairgrounds
7.Be Kind to Nature
8.The Woods Are Alive
9.Alien
10.Voices in the Dark
11.The Emperor’s Guard
12.Sleep
13.Aftermath
14.Home
15.Bear
16.The Shift
17.Ducks
18.The Last Precept
19.The Drop-Off
20.Take Your Seats, Everyone
21.A Simple Thing
22.Awards
23.Floating
24.Pictures
25.The Walk Home
Appendix
1.Ack nowledgments
2.Permissions
Doctors have come from distant cities
just to see me
stand over my bed
disbelieving what they’re seeing
They say I must be one of the wonders of god’s own creation
and as far as they can see they can offer no explanation
—NATALIE MERCHANT, “Wonder”
Ordinary
I know I’m not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice cream. I ride my bike. I play ball. I have an XBox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I guess. And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don’t get stared at wherever they go.
If I found a magic lamp and I could have one wish, I would wish that I had a normal face that no one ever noticed at all. I would wish that I could walk down the street without people seeing me and then doing that look-away thing. Here’s what I think: the only reason I’m not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.
But I’m kind of used to how I look by now. I know how to pretend I don’t see the faces people make. We’ve all gotten pretty good at that sort of thing: me, Mom and Dad, Via. Actually, I take that back: Via’s not so good at it. She can get really annoyed when people do something rude. Like, for instance, one time in the playground some older kids made some noises. I don’t even know what the noises were exactly because I didn’t hear them myself, but Via heard and she just started yelling at the kids. That’s the way she is. I’m not that way.
Via doesn’t see me as ordinary. She says she does, but if I were ordinary, she wouldn’t feel like she needs to protect me as much. And Mom and Dad don’t see me as ordinary,
either. They see me as extraordinary. I think the only person in the world who realizes how ordinary I am is me.
My name is August, by the way. I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.
发表于 2018-2-28 01:55:28
122
发表于 2018-2-28 08:12:49
来自手机
