Tales From The Fragile Balancing Act

    Copley Square Memorial   (In their Sneakers) They ran for charities, for fun, for sons who could not, or just to defiantly show that they could. Yes, they ran. They ran so, so fast from those blasts that surpassed worst visions of fear burned so loud that even the finest of sneakers  in town could not outrun all those horrible sounds. So they stopped in their tracks and ran back. Then they ran, taking orders, and messages (hope) holding hands and back tears standing strong. Always running. Defiant. Now knowing they could.   That they would. Stay strong. Then they ran back that same path past the 26th mile before walking then trudging then still. Silent, they hung up their shoes, and Mary hung her head, and Old Glory hung between worlds. Hushed. For a long, long while. They'll run again, though. And like never before. New sneakers, new legs, new lives. Whole once more.

SPOILER ALERT!!!  This is not a review and if you have not read this book (you really should btw) the following will entirely ruin the novel for you. So I was assigned this book for a course - truly enjoyed the read and pretty much accepted what I was told by the narrator and walked away satisfied for the most part. During the following class meeting, there was a heated debate concerning who were the actual parents of young Adrian.  Knowing I had a final paper to write on the novel (or novella, apparently there's a heated debate over this) I thought it wise to give the book a second read. For some reason I read it backwards ten-page chunks at a time.  If you never have done this I highly recommend.  Taken out of the context of the plot, passages read entirely differently.  Anyway, without looking for it I came upon a curious theory which soon snowballed leading to more and more unexpected and shocking discoveries.  For a few days there I became obsessed. I read and rere