Freak The Mighty Chapter 9

9.
Life Is Dangerous
So out we go. It's a habit by now, Freak riding up high on my shoulders and using his little feet to
steer me if 1 forget where we're going. Not that we always know. Freak likes to make things up as he goes
along. You think you're just walking down this ordinary sidewalk and really you're crossing this
dangerous bridge, the kind made of vines that hangs high up in the air over a deep canyon, and when
Freak makes it up it seems so real, you're afraid to look down or you'll get dizzy and fall off the sidewalk.
"Don't ever look down," he says. "Just keep your eyes closed." And then he puts his hands over
my eyes and tells me to keep walking straight. "One foot," he says. "Now the next." I'm fighting to keep
my balance, and his hands are making me dizzy.
"One more step," Freak says. "Steady. Steady. Now lift up your hoof - I mean your foot. There,
we made it!" And he takes his hands away and I see we've crossed the street.
"Go East," he says when I get to the end of the block. "That way, mighty steed! Yonder lies the
East!"
I go, "How do you know which way is East?"
And then something is glinting in my eye and Freak is showing me this little compass.
"The Official Cub Scout Compass?"
"That's a clever disguise so you don't know how valuable it is," he says. ''This is actually a rare
and valuable artifact passed down for generations. Lancelot used it, so did Sir Gawain, and for a time the
Black Knight kept it on a chain next to his heart."
I go, "So the Black Knight was a Cub Scout, huh?" and Freak laughs and says, "That way. We go
to the East on a secret mission."
We walk for miles. Way beyond the pond and the playground and the school, and for a while
we're going through this really ritzy neighborhood of big white houses' and blue swimming pools. Freak
keeps saying stuff like, "That's the Castle of Avarice," and, ''Yonder lies the Bloated Moat," and when we
go under trees he'll say, "Proceed with caution," or,' "All clear," depending on how low the branches
come down.
''We must be East," I say. "Have we got to yonder yet?" because my stupid feet are getting sore,
but Freak pats me on the head and says, "Yonder always lies over the next horizon. You could look it up
if you don't believe me."
"Oh, I believe you."
On and on, block after block, through all these neighborhoods that Freak says are really secret
kingdoms. I'll bet we've gone ten miles at least, because my legs think it's a hundred, and even as light as
Freak is, he's starting to feel heavy.
'We're almost there," he says. "Turn at the end of the block."
"Where is it we're going?"
"You'll see," he says, "and you will be amazed."
Ahead there's this busy intersection; cars whizzing by, and it all seems sort of familiar.
"Can we stop for a Coke?" I say. "Grim gave me a dollar, big deal, but we can split it."
Freak goes, "Then that shall be your reward, faithful steed - tinted sucrose and bubbles of air.
Onward! Onward to the Fortress!"

. ' '.,
It turns out the Fortress looks like part of a hospital, which it is. The real hospital is around in
front and there’s this new building added on out back. MEDICAL RESEARCH, it says over the door, and I
know because I made Freak spell it out. .
"Does that mean they do experiments and stuff?"
Freak says, "Indeed they do."
"What kind of experiments?" I ask.
"Can you keep a secret?" he says. "Do you swear on your honor?"
"Sure. On my honor."
.
Freak is really excited, he's shifting around on my shoulders so much, I'm afraid he'll fall off.
"That's not good enough," he says. "You need to swear by blood."
. "You mean like cut myself?"
“Well, .no," he 'says, and you can tell he's thinking about it real hard. An actual incision is not
necessary. It's the same thing if you just spit on your hand."
"Huh?"
"Saliva is like blood without the red," he says.
"Do as I say, spit in your hand."
So I spit in my hand, just a little drop,' but Freak says it doesn't matter how much, a single
molecule would work, because it's the principle of the thing. "Now put your hand over your heart," he
says.
I put my hand over my heart.
"Now swear on your heart that the data you are about to receive will be divulged to no one."
"I swear."
Freak bends down and he's got .his hand cupped around my ear and he's whispering: "Inside the
research building is a secret laboratory called The Experimental Bionics Unit. The unit's mission is to
develop a new form of bionic robot for human modification." .
"What's that?" I say.
"Shhh! Speak of this to no one, but at some future time as yet undetermined, I will enter that lab
and become the first bionically improved human."
"I still don't know what it means," I say. "Bionics. And please don't make me look it up in the
dictionary."
"Bionics," Freak says. "That's the science of designing replacement parts for the human body."
''You mean like mechanical arms and legs?"
"That's ancient history," Freak says. "The Bionics Unit is building a whole new body just my
size."
''Yeah? What'll it look like? A robot?"
"A human robot," Freak says. "Also it will look a lot like me, only enlarged and improved."
"Yeah, right," I say. "Let's go home, my feet are tired."
Freak tugs hard at my hair. "True!" he says, with his voice getting high and excited. "I've been in
there, in the special unit! I have to go every few months for tests. They've taken my measurements,
analyzed my blood and metabolic rates. They've monitored my cardiac rhythms and my respiratory
functions. I've already been X-rayed and CAT-scanned and sonogrammed. .They're fitting me for a bionic
transplant, I'm going to be the first."
I can tell he really means it. This isn't a pretend quest, or making houses into castles or swimming
pools into moats. This is why we came here, so Freak could show me where he's been. The place is
important to him. I understand this much, even if I still don't understand about bionics or what it means to
be a human robot.
"Will it hurt?" I' ask. "Getting your parts replaced?"
Freak doesn't answer for a while and then he says in his stem, smart voice, "Sure it will hurt. But
so what? Pain is just a state of mind. You can think your way out of anything, even pain."
I'm pretty worried about the whole deal, and I go, "But why do you want to be the first? Can't
someone else be first? Isn't it dangerous?"
"Life is dangerous," Freak says, and you can tell he's thought a lot about this. After a while
he kicks me with his little feet and says, "Home."

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9.

I go, "How do you know which way is East?"

"The Official Cub Scout Compass?"

"Oh, I believe you."

"Where is it we're going?"

"You'll see," he says, "and you will be amazed."

Onward! Onward to the Fortress!"

"Does that mean they do experiments and stuff?"

Freak says, "Indeed they do."

"What kind of experiments?" I ask.

"That's not good enough," he says. "You need to swear by blood."

. "You mean like cut myself?"

"Saliva is like blood without the red," he says.

"Do as I say, spit in your hand."

I put my hand over my heart.

"What's that?" I say.

''You mean like mechanical arms and legs?"

''Yeah? What'll it look like? A robot?"

"Yeah, right," I say. "Let's go home, my feet are tired."

"Will it hurt?" I' ask. "Getting your parts replaced?"

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