Chasing Forgiveness (21 page)

“I'll meet you there,” I tell him. Grandma and Grandpa have headed to their car with Tyler, but Dad is still here. He stands alone, looking down the track, thinking. I know he was a track star when he was in high school, but I don't know what his best events were. There are just so many things you never get to know about your parents.

“Ah, you're not so fast,” says Dad with a smirk on his face.

I play along with him. “No, I'm not. Actually, I'm pretty slow, compared to a Porsche. And a Porsche doesn't even break a sweat.”

“Exactly,” he says, and his smirk widens. “You've never beaten me in a race, you know.”

“Last time I raced you, I was eleven years old!”

“So?”

It's a challenge, and the two of us get down in starting position, at the finish line, facing the wrong way on the track.

“Okay,” says my dad, “on your mark . . .” And then he takes off. I knew he'd take off before he said “go”—but I wasn't expecting him to start running before he said “get set.” I stumble but get right back to my feet, laughing. At twenty yards, I catch up with him and slow down, letting him stay neck and neck with me. We never did say where the finish line was going to be, so we both just keep running.

Now, as the ash pounds beneath our feet, it suddenly doesn't seem to matter whether forgiving my father is right or wrong.

Because now I'm running
with
my dad, instead of away from him, and that's the way I like it.

In his senior year of high school, Preston Scott was offered scholarships in football and track from numerous universities.

Some time after the incident with Sarah, Danny Scott fell in love with a woman who knew his background but loved him in spite of it. After a long engagement, they were married.

Preston was Danny's best man.

Also by Neal Shusterman

NOVELS

Bruiser

Challenger Deep

Chasing Forgiveness

The Dark Side of Nowhere

Dissidents

Downsiders

The Eyes of Kid Midas

Full Tilt

The Shadow Club

The Shadow Club Rising

Speeding Bullet

THE ACCELERATI SERIES

(with Eric Elfman)

Tesla's Attic

Edison's Alley

THE ANTSY BONANO SERIES

The Schwa Was Here

Antsy Does Time

Ship Out of Luck

THE UNWIND DYSTOLOGY

Unwind

UnWholly

UnSouled

UnDivided

UnStrung (an e-book original)

THE SKINJACKER TRILOGY

Everlost

Everwild

Everfound

THE STAR SHARDS CHRONICLES

Scorpion Shards

Thief of Souls

Shattered Sky

THE DARK FUSION SERIES

Dreadlocks

Red Rider's Hood

Duckling Ugly

STORY COLLECTIONS

Darkness Creeping

Kid Heroes

MindQuakes

MindStorms

MindTwisters

MindBenders

MindBenders

Visit the author at
storyman.com
and
facebook.com/nealshusterman

This book is a work of fiction. It is inspired by real-life experiences that have been fictionalized for the purposes of this novel. Names and identifying details are also fictional.

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Text copyright © 1991 by Neal Shusterman

Originally published in 1991 as
What Daddy Did
by Little, Brown and Company.

This
edition 2015

Jacket photograph of sky copyright © 2015 by Thinkstock/iStock; photograph of chain-link fence copyright © 2015 by Getty Images/Jasper White

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Jacket design by Krista Vossen

Interior design by Hilary Zarycky

The text for this book is set in New Caledonia.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shusterman, Neal.

Chasing Forgiveness / Neal Shusterman.

pages cm

Originally published as
What Daddy Did
: Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1991.

Summary: A fourteen-year-old living with his grandparents learns his father is to be released from prison after killing his mother and feels apprehensive about renewing the relationship. Inspired by real events.

ISBN 978-1-4814-2992-4 (hardcover; alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4814-2993-1 (eBook)

[1. Fathers and sons—Fiction. 2. Death—Fiction. 3. Forgiveness—Fiction. 4. Grandparents—Fiction.]  I. Title.

PZ7.S55987Wh 2015

[Fic]—dc23

2014016228