Rob gritted his teeth and willed his tired legs to keep pedaling. Only two more miles. Just two and he would be home. It had been the longest day of his life. Joining the gang for a bike ride to the ocean had seemed like a fun idea. Only he hadn’t stopped to calculate how long of a ride it was. But he had made it. At least this far. Couldn’t he make the last two miles? The other guys were all up ahead and when one shouted something back, he nodded and waved.

“I wonder what he said,” he mused as they disappeared around a bend in the road. “I hope it wasn’t important.”

His legs burned as he steered his bike toward the turn, feeling like he was moving by inches. Two miles. Less than two miles. Not much less, but still. He had to make it. If the guys started thinking they had to treat him gently, it would be the end of the easy friendship he’d basked in since moving to the little coastal town two months before.

And Phil. Rob’s already red face flushed hotter at the thought of his brother. Phil had said he couldn’t do it, had tried to convince Mom not to let him go. He wouldn’t give Phil the satisfaction of seeing him come into town on the back of another boy’s bike. He’d make it on his own if it killed him. Of course, Phil had been convinced it’d do just that.

Not strong enough. He was so tired of being not strong enough. It’d been six months since he’d been released from the hospital. Would Phil ever see him as strong enough? Two miles. Less than two. He was going to make it. He had to.

As he rounded the turn, Rob saw the rest of the group in the distance. How had they gained so quickly? They must be racing. It wouldn’t be the first time today. They’d stop and wait for him eventually.

He’d slowed too much watching the cloud of dust and wheels ahead of him, and his bike began to wobble. Rob jerked the handlebars and gave one quick kick to the pedals, and the front wheel veered sharply toward a large rock. He grabbed for the brakes, but it was too late. The bike bucked, twisted, and rolled into the deep gully that bordered the road, landing on top of him at the bottom in a tangle of arms, legs, rocks, and spokes.

For a moment, Rob lay half stunned, then he slowly raised himself on his elbow. With a good deal of effort, he managed to pry himself apart from the bike and sit up. The gully spun around him, and he grabbed a nearby rock to keep himself upright.

As the world settled a little, Rob became aware of a dull pounding in his head and raised his hand to find something warm and wet trickling from a cut just below his hairline. He started to lift his other hand, but a sharper stab of pain revealed a larger, faster-bleeding gash on his right arm. He pulled his sleeve down over his shoulder and used his left hand to hold it against the cut as he glanced down at his legs. The left one was scratched and bruised, and his ankle throbbed a bit when he moved it. His right knee was scraped raw and covered in blood.

His eyes slid to his bike, and he winced. He was in no condition to ride, but the bent front wheel would make even walking the bike an awful task in his current state. Rob leaned his head against the side of the gully and closed his eyes as he waited for the bleeding to slow. He mentally traced the route they had followed that morning—no houses until the dirt road merged with the end of Main Street. How long would it take the boys to come looking for him? Or had that call he’d missed been a “see you tomorrow”? If they’d all gone home, he could sit here for hours without being found. 

Rob groaned. He’d have given anything at that moment to be tucked under the soft, clean covers of his own bed, even if Mom’s worried fussing and Phil’s “I told you so” were part of the deal. If Phil would only show up now…

“I have to get home.” He’d kept the self-pep talks inside his head all day, but saying them out loud made them seem truer, more real. “Someone’s got to come along, but if they don’t—I’ve just got to start. I won’t get anywhere sitting here.”

Rob checked the bleeding on his arm, which had slowed, then carefully inched himself out of the gully, dragging the bent bicycle by the handlebars with his feet. At the top, he tried to stand but gasped and sank back to the ground as his knee gave a sharp protest. Tears stung his eyes, and he buried his face in his good arm.

“This isn’t getting me home.” Hissing the words through clenched teeth, Rob staggered to his feet, ignoring the throbbing in his ankle and holding tightly to his thighs until the pain in his knee subsided a little. With some effort and more than one searing reminder of the cut in his arm, he got the bike upright and leaned against the handlebars. It actually wasn’t a bad crutch, or wouldn’t have been if the front wheel hadn’t been so uncooperative. Still, it was better than nothing, or at least that’s what he’d tell himself.

Rob bit back a cry at the pain in his knee as he began inching along the road. Two miles. A little less, but still—almost two miles. He’d been pushing to make it on a bike. But walking—and walking injured? The thought made him dizzy, and he turned his attention back to his feet. A painful step. An excruciating step. Stay upright when the bent wheel caught or twisted. Catch a breath when the throbbing dulled for an instant, then hold it for a fresh wave of pain. Looking up at the trees in the unattainable distance was torture, and after a few glances, he kept his eyes trained on the dirt road. Left foot. Grit teeth. Right foot. Breathe. One step more. Just one step more.

The pattern became his entire existence. It consumed him so completely that he barely registered the whine of a car motor until a door slammed with a thump.

“Robbie!”

Rob slowly lifted his gaze and collapsed into his brother’s arms. It was a minute before he knew anything else, but when the fog began to clear, he found himself on the ground with Phil leaning over him, wiping his face with a wet handkerchief.

“Phil.” The word was a sob, and Phil looked down quickly.

“Take it easy, Robbie. It’ll all be okay. What happened?”

“Caught my wheel—on a rock. Crashed in the gully. Too far behind—no one saw.” To his dismay, Rob found himself trembling all over. Phil held a canteen to his lips and lifted his head to help him drink, then went to work tending his cuts with the first-aid kit he always carried. He talked softly as he worked.

“I saw the boys at Marco’s, and Gary told me they’d raced the last mile and a half. They were waiting for you, but I told them I’d meet you and send you straight home to supper. I didn’t think you’d want them to see if you’d given out.”

“You were right, Phil.” Rob closed his eyes, and his shoulders slumped, then tensed again as Phil touched his knee.

“Right about what?”

“I wasn’t strong enough. I couldn’t make it. I shouldn’t have—” Rob couldn’t keep back a grunt of pain as Phil applied an alcohol wipe to the scrape. “I shouldn’t have tried.”

Phil didn’t answer until he’d wrapped the knee in gauze and cleaned a couple of smaller cuts. Finally, his eyes met Rob’s.

“Robbie, I’ve never been so wrong in my life.”

Rob blinked at him dully.

“About what?”

“Lots of things. But mostly about you.” He moved to sit near Rob’s head again and carefully stroked his brother’s hair back from his face. “I was so scared, Robbie. All that time you were in the hospital, and then afterwards—I’ve never been so scared in my life. All I could think was that we’d lose you—and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.” Phil swallowed hard, and Rob wondered if there were really tears in his eyes, or if it was just a trick of the sun. Phil went on talking quietly. “When you started to get better—I couldn’t let go of that fear. I just wanted to hide you away where nothing could hurt you ever again.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Rob murmured. The tension was draining from his body, and Phil’s gentle stroking of his hair had nearly put him to sleep.

“No, Robbie.” Phil’s voice was quiet, but his words had a ring that made Rob’s eyes open wide. “That would have been the worst mistake of my life. You’re not one of Mom’s porcelain figurines that needs to be wrapped in cotton and stuck on a shelf. You’re stronger than that—much stronger—and I can see that now. Taking your life away to protect you—it’d hurt you much worse than anything else could.”

“But I’m not strong, Phil.” Rob felt his lip trembling. “You were right; the ride was too long. I was beat—a long time before I fell.”

“Beat, but not licked.”

“Huh?”

“Where’d you fall, Robbie?”

“Just after the turn.”

“So you made over eighteen miles of a twenty-mile round trip on your bike, when I didn’t think you’d last ten. And you would have made the rest if you hadn’t hit that rock.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I found you half a mile from that spot, limping on a bad knee and not an overly good ankle and pushing a bent bicycle, that’s how.” Phil tipped Rob’s chin up and looked into his eyes. “You’ve got grit, kid. Right-down, pure, unadulterated grit. And when those cuts heal up, you’re going to prove it by biking out to Pickett’s Gorge with me.”

Rob caught his breath. He’d heard so much about Pickett’s Gorge, and to go there with Phil— He broke off the train of thought and shook his head.

“That’s a fifteen-mile ride one way. I’d never make the whole thing, even if I wasn’t still stiff and sore.”

“We’ll wait ‘til the soreness is past. And we’ll take it in easy stages—camp there a couple nights instead of coming straight home. Are you game?”

For answer, Rob wrapped his better arm around his brother and held on tightly.

“You can look out for me any time, Phil.”

“I plan to. You’re a special kid, Robbie. But I don’t aim to be the one that rubs your grit off.”

“I wouldn’t mind getting rid of some of it.” Rob brushed at the coating of dirt that covered his skin, and Phil laughed.

“The outer stuff we can take care of. Just don’t let anyone steal it from your heart.” In another minute, he’d swept Rob off the ground and into the car. “Let’s get you home, hero. What do you say?”

“I say I love you, Phil.” Rob smiled and closed his eyes as he lay back against the seat. “And if you’re really taking me out to Pickett’s Gorge, then I’d say I’m not the only one who’s brave.”

“Maybe you’ve taught me something.” Phil reached over and stroked his brother’s hair again before putting the car in gear. And under the whine of the motor, Rob was certain he heard, “And I love you, too, kid.”